Third seed Dinara Safina ended Jelena Dokic’s never-to-be-forgotten fairytale to reach the semifinals of the 2009 Australian Open. Score: 6-4 4-6 6-4.
I am sorry that Dokic lost, because she clearly had a chance to win. On the other hand, I’m happy the match was a close three-setter and Dokic’s extraordinary Australian Open run ended in style. Safina deserved to win, and I’m looking forward to watching her play against fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals.
Safina got to a 2-0 lead in the first set, but in the sixth game Dokic managed to return that one break. At 4-4, Dokic’s serve was broken again, and Safina quickly served out for the set in the following game.
Dokic won the second set after many ups and downs. Most notably, she didn’t win the set on her own serve at 5-4, but Safina lost the following game, handing Dokic the win by double-faulting.
In the third set Safina established an early lead, 2-0, but later in the set Dokic leveled at 4-4, and even earned two successive break points in the following game. However, the world No.3 Safina won the next two games to reach her third Grand Slam semifinal.
Dokic, currently ranked 187th in the world will move into the Top 100 when the new rankings are released. I can’t wait to watch her showing her heart of a champion in more tournaments.
As for Safina’s match-up with Zvonareva, Zvonareva won their last three encounters, and all the three took place last year, on hard surface, while Safina leads their overall head-to-head record 5-4.
well done jelena. hope to see you some more later on!
Jelena will sure be seen more. It’s exciting.