Russia’s Dinara Safina pulled off a second successive miracle French Open comeback to reach her first career Grand Slam semifinal at Roland Garros on Wednesday.
In a virtual carbon copy of her stunning fourth-round win over top seed Maria Sharapova, Safina came back from a set and 2-5 down, and saved a match point, to beat compatriot Elena Dementieva 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-0.
The 13th seed ran away with 11 of the last 12 games of an enthralling quarterfinal and will now face another Russian, Svetlana Kuznetsova, for a place in Saturday’s final.
”At 2-5 down, I knew I had to change my game completely. I thought I will give her the extra ball, and I think she got confused. I was saying to her: ‘OK, you have to hit the winner’,” said Safina.
”I was almost out on match point. I have to play the semifinal on Thursday. Physically I should be fine. Sometimes practice is harder than a match and I’m only 22.
”If I am tired now, what will I be like when I’m 28.”
There was no hint of the drama to come in the early exchanges.
After dropping the first set, Safina quickly slipped 0-2 down in the second and was in danger of seeing her hopes of a first Grand Slam semifinal collapse when she had to fight off five more break points in the third game.
But she held on and broke back to 2-2, only to hand the advantage straight back with a sloppy service game to allow Dementieva to edge ahead 3-2.
The 26-year-old Dementieva, who had lost in the Berlin clay-court final to Safina in the run-up to Roland Garros, broke again to lead 5-2 and seemingly the tie was over.
However, just like in her fourth-round win over Sharapova, Safina refused to surrender.
She won the next four games, saving a match point along the way in the ninth game.
Dementieva, the 2004 runner-up here, was under pressure and had to fight off three set points, one of which featured an exhausting 29 strokes, in the 12th game.
She saved two more in the tiebreak before Safina levelled the quarterfinal when her opponent fired a forehand long to end an 80-minute second set.
Safina found herself in control and stormed into a 5-0 lead in the decider on the back of three breaks as Dementieva’s game fell to pieces.
Dementieva saved two match points in the sixth game but then sent a wild forehand long to hand her old Moscow friend a famous win. — AFP
