Safina comes through Venus epic

Eurosport - Sat, 09 May 17:40:00 2009

World number one Dinara Safina came from behind against Venus Williams to win an epic WTA Rome semi-final 6-7 6-3 6-4 and set up an all-Russian final.

TENNIS 2009 WTA Rome Dinara Safina - 0

Safina rallied from a set and 2-0 down to earn the right to face her compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova, who barged past Belarussian Victoria Azarenka with a 6-2 6-4 win.

The pair will meet in a final for the second week running after Kuznetsova beat Safina to capture the Stuttgart Grand Prix last Sunday and end a barren run stretching back to 2007.

"She (Kuznetsova) is another great player and she's playing some of her best tennis," Safina said.

"So I'll have to go out there and play my best like did I today."

American fourth seed Williams played the tidier, more intelligent tennis early on to go 4-1 and then 5-2 ahead.

Safina, who also fought back to get past China's Zheng Jie and Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez this week, refused to cave in and began to mixed up her game more.

She delivered some booming forehand winners to force a tiebreak but the American held her nerve to take it 7-3 with a dropshot.

Williams kept up the pace to go 2-0 up in the second set before Safina stormed back to win six of the next seven games to level the contest.

The Russian twice let a break advantage slip in the third set but she broke again with a powerful crosscourt backhand return.

She then saved four break points in the following game and failed to convert two match points before finally clinching an enthralling match that lasted over three hours.

"She was a little bit passive (at the end of the match)," added Safina. "I think she showed me she was maybe nervous too and I went for the shots and I did the right thing. She pushed me to play my best."

Despite the defeat, the WTA said Williams would jump from fifth to third in the world rankings next week, her highest position since 2003.

"She played well, continued to fight for every point," Williams said.

"She went for every shot. She just hit every ball as hard as she could. Obviously she didn't want me to have the first shot or to take control. If she can hit every ball that hard and keep it in, then congratulations to her."

In the other semi-final Kuznetsova initially found it easy to attack 19-year-old Azarenka's serve and won the first set at a canter.

Azarenka began the second set by winning the first two games and was unlucky in the third, when Kuznetsova held a tough service game with the help of a bad call on the final point.

She protested and the incident seemed to rattle her. Her seventh seeded opponent took advantage to break back with a fine backhand cross court winner on the way to going 5-2 ahead.

The Belarussian threatened to come back, pulling up to 5-4 before the former US Open champion broke again to clinch the match.

Watch coverage of WTA Rome throughout the week live on your PC via the Eurosport Player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe. Or watch on British Eurosport and British Eurosport 2, right up to the final at 3pm on Saturday May 9. British Eurosport is available on Sky channel 410 and Virgin Media channel 521, and British Eurosport 2 on Sky 411 and Virgin Media 525.

Reuters

Comment 24 - 43 of 43

Sort comments by: Most recent

  1. lets see where Madrid takes us,.
    then we will talk,­ about red clay queens
    with allot of top tien players,­ actually
    ivanovic pulled out off the tournement, too­ bad
    for her too defend her titlee at RG.

    From Mootje M, on Sun 10 May 1:13AM

  2. tennischeto at 28 is a sore loser. safina lifted the­ title so definitely she deserves the credit. having­ deafeted the mighty venus makes it even sweeter. lets­ face it that the williams sisters are on their twilight­ years. yea, they are still competetive today and for­ the next few years but they can not stop getting old.­ eventually, they have to retire just like everybody­ else. i don't feel sorry for the american fans who­ would soon be rooting for above top 20 players because­ when they were at the top they have acted as if they­ will never go down, ungracious and conceited most of­ the time. cheers to the next dominating countries,­ maybe russia and serbia.

    From gbonglong, on Sat 9 May 7:58PM

  3. Well played both.But did you really have to turn it­ into a screaming contest???

    From Roger, on Sat 9 May 7:31PM

  4. congratulations girl for your determination ! You ARE­ real number one cose you are currently the best .. end­ of story !

    From Igor K, on Sat 9 May 6:22PM

  5. sideway m, completely agree - tennis is better, more­ intersting and more intense then cycling.

    From Mia, on Sat 9 May 5:35PM

  6. Great match from both girls! Really wonderful play,­ real tennis at last!! Probably the best match of the­ year till now!! Congrats to Dinara!! Bravo to Venus for­ her display and respect for the opponent!! But still, I­ am very angry with Eurosport..cause the finals of both­ Wta Rome and Atp Estoril should be shown live!! Come­ on!! Who's interested in cycling, by the way..?

    From sideway m, on Sat 9 May 5:06PM

  7. and she won the title! Good job, girl!

    From Mia, on Sat 9 May 5:05PM

  8. I really wanted Venus to win. But taking Safina to 3­ sets is good enuf at the moment. Safina is the current­ world number 1, and RG finalist. She is gud on clay as­ is evident from her cv of last year. So for Venus to­ make this an epic shows how far she has come ova da­ past few years on clay. Dnt forget this is her least­ fav surface. And would only spur her on to perform beta­ at RG, and future tournaments where she will be at ease­ on her fav surface. Safina needed 3 sets on her fav and­ Venus least fav surface. But Venus always takes Safina­ out in 2 on her fav, it shows hu is beta. Come on Vee.

    From P B, on Sat 9 May 4:05PM

  9. Congrats too venus williams,..
    next week she will move­ 2 spots up too
    the 3e position on the world rankings,..­ and this
    is her 2e red clay tournement. the first one,­ she won.
    2e one made it too semi's,...believe me..­ watch out for venus williams
    at roland garros,..!!!

    From Mootje M, on Sat 9 May 4:02PM

  10. dinara go for the trophy

    From Dimitris, on Sat 9 May 3:48PM

  11. It would be better for Dinara if she tried to win­ matches without advices from her coach because at the­ French Open he won't be able to come on court and­ give her advice.She will have to find her own way out­ of trouble.
    Really great match from both women.And got­ to see Venus back at No.3.

    From honeybeecro7, on Sat 9 May 3:27PM

  12. we have to see if safina is the true number 1­ today.good lucky,safina but williams sisters are the­ champs

    From Moses, on Sat 9 May 3:04PM

  13. well done Dinara.

    From aleksicn93, on Sat 9 May 2:36PM

  14. Dinara plays ugly tennis...
    It works for her though,­ but sooooo ugly....

    From Vladimir, on Sat 9 May 1:58PM

  15. Big congrats to dinara for coming through this match,­ hope the improvement continues. ha ha another Williams­ article and, surprise surprise richmc23 reappears to­ carry on his agenda against the williamses. very­ intriguing info from the monitoring unit who apparently­ knows a lot about our richmc23 who is as fake as he is­ laughable. without divulging too much in case the wrong­ people identify him, he is apparently an african albino­ who has a lot of grievance against the stupid people­ who mocked him as a freak of nature for the chemical­ imbalance in the womb which made him come into the­ world with pink/white pigmentation rather than what­ everybody else looked like. we should empathise with­ him for that but trawling the internet to seek revenge­ against black people is not the answer. apparently they­ didnt buy his one quarter scottish claim either whilst­ at school there, so he comes here ranting against andy­ murray as well. has anyone seen him comment on anything­ else other than murray and the williamses? the advice­ is not to take him on when he abuses these sports­ people and he will soon fade away.

    From sanchez.santos, on Sat 9 May 1:36PM

  16. Ahh i so wanted Venus to win but Dinara did so we have­ to give her credit for that.Do so hope that Sveta­ Kuznetsova will win today though i just love to watch­ her play on the clay. All the best girls.

    From AJ, on Sat 9 May 1:34PM

  17. I really don't get it what exactly are you­ congratulating Safina for? That she managed to beat­ Venus Williams? Come on people wake up. What kind of a­ professional tennis player is Safina - 23 years old,­ world #1 - when she had her coach on court many times­ in every match she played this week. Is that how you­ see the WTA world #1? What, she cannot beat Venus on­ her own but she needs her coach's advices every 10­ min? She cannot think for herself and cannot figure out­ how to beat #48 Martinez Sanchez if her coach­ doesn't come on court at least twice every set?­ What a worthy world #1 for sure!! Hopefully Sveta will­ take care of the business.

    From tennischeto, on Sat 9 May 1:24PM

  18. CONGRAT FOR MIGHTY VENUS AS WELL FOR JUMPING UP TO­ 3RD!!! THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT!!! LOOKING FORWARD TO­ HAVE YOU AND SERENA OCCUPYING THE NO. 1 & 2 SPOT­ SOOOOONNN!!!!

    From Serranno, on Sat 9 May 1:05PM

  19. CONGRATULATION SAFINA. BUT THE MATCH PROOVES THAT YOU­ WERE JUST LUCKY IN THE 3RD SET, CONSIDERING BOTH OF YOU­ HAVE BEEN SO TIRED AFTER 3 HOURS & THE FINAL SET­ COULD'VE BEEN TAKEN BY VENUS AS WELL. THANKS FOT­ THE ENTERTAINING MATCH ANYWAY. I LOOK FORWARDFOR YOU TO­ FACE VENUS AGAIN. ALL THE BEST FOR BOTH OF YOU!

    From Serranno, on Sat 9 May 1:03PM

  20. Hello, fans!I'm an amazing tall model from UK. I­ like Tennis and travelling very much.
    I have a blog­ on-- Seekingtall Co m -- I like to share the funny­ things with other fans,esp handsome guys.Find me out­ and let’s have some fun

    From rangychi666, on Sat 9 May 12:58PM
Sort comments by: Most recent

Not already a Yahoo! user ? to get a free Yahoo! Account