Dinara Safina stops Kim Clijsters’ surge in Cincinnati

By
Marija
-
11

Wildcard Kim Clijsters had defeated three Top 20 players en route to the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open before Russian world No.1 Dinara Safina ended the Belgian’s fairytale comeback run. Final score: 6-2 7-5.

Clijsters defeated Marion Bartoli in the first round, Patty Schnyder in the second and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third, which were her first three matches after a more than two-year-long break, but top-seeded Safina stopped the former world No.1 Clijsters from progressing further by winning only the second time in their eight encounters.

“I really felt today that Dinara played some of her best tennis that I’ve seen,” said Clijsters, whose return after a child birth has proved to be more than promising. “I think by far that’s the best she’s ever played against me.”

Safina will next play world No.12 Flavia Pennetta, who defeated Daniela Hantuchova in the quarterfinals one day after upsetting Venus Williams. By reaching the semis, Pennetta will have the honor of becoming the first Italian Top 10 tennis player.

The other semifinal pair will feature Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva and Serbian fifth seed Jelena Jankovic. Dementieva defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-1, while Jankovic lost only three games in the match against Sybille Bammer, who upset Serena Williams in the previous round.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

11 COMMENTS

  1. Thank goodness, the tennis community would go explode if Dina had lost in this round, unfortunately her victim was Kim…

  3. Interesting comment- an Aussie commentator this year noted such a hairstyle was reminiscent of the samurai warrior

  4. The draw for Toronto has been released, and Marija, now we can safely say Maria and Nadia’s draw is possibly rigged. 😛

    For the fourth time out of five tournaments they played, they are drawn to meet, this time in the first round. The fourth time! The only tournament where they’re not drawn into each other was last week’s Los Angeles tournament.

    I hope they have a Facebook or an e-mail where I can reach them. 😀

  5. Wow. Really? The bun or the Pony tail (is it even a ponytail? I dont know womens hair styles!)

    Everything about Dinara just annoys me. No offence. Especially her serve! Sorry

  7. After U.S. lost to Mexico in a world cup qualifying match in Mexico City this past Wednesday; midfielder Donovan admitted to have played in the match being sick with Swine Flu. He said that contracted the disease in the U.S. I bring this up because Caroline Wozniacki met Donovan when she played in L.A. This was a week prior to the U.S.-Mexico match. She should get tested just to make sure she doesn’t have the disease.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here