PARIS: Dinara Safina needs only one more win to join her elder brother as a Grand Slam champion.
Dispensing with the come-from-behind drama of her previous two matches, Safina advanced by beating fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday.
Ana Ivanovic then won a see-saw semifinal against fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
The new No. 1
Ivanovic swept through the final three games for a victory that ensures she’ll be ranked No. 1 for the first time next week, replacing Maria Sharapova.
Safina’s berth in a major final is her first. Her brother Marat Safin is a former No. 1 player who has won the U.S. and Australian Opens. “I’m doing it for him and for myself,” she said.
Safina, seeded 13th, was one point from defeat against Sharapova in the fourth round and against the seventh seed Elena Dementieva in the quarterfinals before mounting comebacks.
But, against the error-prone Kuznetsova, Safina took a 4-1 lead and cruised the rest of the way.
“I won in two sets — that’s strange for me,” Safina said. “Once I had a set, I knew I could push a little bit more.”
Roller-coaster
The match between the second-seeded Ivanovic and third-seeded Jankovic was a roller-coaster, with every set won by the player who fell behind at the start.
Ivanovic won the first set 6-4 and led 2-0 in the second, but began to struggle with her serve even as Jankovic became more aggressive. The latter took the second 6-3 and was ahead 2-0 in the final set before Ivanovic mounted a dramatic comeback.
In the final game, Ivanovic broke Jankovic’s serve by whacking four winners, including a ferocious forehand return on match point. She squealed and covered her face in delight, then received a hug from Jankovic.
“It was a lot of ups and downs for both of us,” Ivanovic said. “I’m so happy I managed to stay until the end.”
Like Safina, Ivanovic is seeking her first major title. She was runner-up at the 2007 French Open and 2008 Australian Open.
Kuznetsova struggles
Kuznetsova, the 2004 U.S. Open champion, hardly looked like a No. 4 player, struggling to keep her groundstrokes in the court. She said she was tight and unable to get comfortable because Safina’s penetrating shots pinned her well behind the baseline.
“It was pretty horrible,” Kuznetsova said. “I felt pretty bad out there. I felt like I could not give her fight because I was fighting first against myself.”
By the second set Kuznetsova became so frustrated that after yet another errant shot, she angrily smacked a ball into the 12th row at the far end of the stadium.
The outburst failed to help. Safina broke in that game for a 3-2 lead and overcame two break points to win the next. Soon she was serving for the match, and one final shanked forehand by Kuznetsova gave Safina victory.
Safina’s best previous Grand Slam showings were quarterfinal finishes in 2006 at Roland Garros and the U.S. Open.
Safina will try to become the first woman to win a Grand Slam title after saving match point in two matches.
Bhupathi injured
An aggravated calf muscle injury forced Mahesh Bhupathi to withdraw from the semifinals of the mixed doubles event.
Bhupathi and his partner Jie Zheng of China conceded a walkover to the top-seeded pair of Slovenia’s Katarina Srebotnik and Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic in the last-four stage match. — Agencies
