Tennis Blog

Safina stops China's Li

BEIJING: Chinese star Li Na's giant-killing run was brought shuddering to a halt by in-form Russian Dinara Safina in the Olympic Games semi-finals on Saturday.

Safina braved a partisan crowd to oust Li 7-6 (7/3), 7-5 and set up an all-Russian final with 2000 silver-medallist Elena Dementieva who beat compatriot Vera Zvonareva, a late call-up for the injured Maria Sharapova, 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).

The 43rd-ranked Li rode a wave of home support to reach the last four, and thousands of fans packed Centre Court on Saturday.

With occasional shouts of "Russia!" drowned out by ear-splitting boos, French Open runner-up Safina got the early break but short-circuited with three double faults to level the first set at 3-3.

They exchanged breaks twice more before the sixth seed took control of the tie-break, racing to a 5-1 lead and snatching the first set point with a monster second serve.

More Safina double-faults handed Li the advantage in the second set, but the Russian kept up the pressure and finally broke back at 4-5 despite being rapped with a coaching warning.

Serving to stay in it, Li crumbled, netting to set up three match points and handing over a place in the final after a long rally.

Li had already made history as the first Chinese player to reach the last eight of an Olympic singles event.

She stunned Russian third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in round one and beat Ayumi Morita and Kaia Kanepi before pulling off an even greater upset, against Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, in the quarters.

Li had dropped just six games in her two previous matches with Safina, but the Russian came into the semi-final on a 14-match streak after winning her last two tournaments.

Dinara Safina beats world number one Jelena Jankovic 6-2 5-7 6-3 to advance in the semi-finals. She will next play China's top player Na Li who beat Venus Williams in the quarterfinals.

Catch up day for women's doubles

The vagaries of the Beijing weather allied to Dinara Safina's presence as the only player left in both singles and doubles has meant Friday's women's action is largely doubles.

The only singles match features Safina's singles quarterfinal against Jelena Jankovic, which had just got to the warm-up stage when rain put an end to Thursday's play. The two are playing for the right to face Li Na in the semifinals, which will now be played on Saturday. The other semi will be an all-Russian affair between Vera Zvonareva and Elena Dementieva.

Safina also plays in the doubles with Svetlana Kuznetsova against China's best medal hopes, Yan/Zheng.

Dinara Safina continued her winning form as she cruised into the next round beating China's Jie Zheng 6-4 6-3.

Dinara Safina advances into 3rd round with a straight sets win over Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 7-6 6-1. She now awaits the winner of the match between China's Jie Zheng and Spain's Nuria Llagostera Vives.

Meanwhile, Daniela Hantuchova lost to Caroline Wozniacki 1-6 3-6.

Daniela Hantuchova into the second round after beating Ai Sugiyama in straight sets 6-2 7-5.

Dinara into the second round of the singles match after beating Italy's Santangelo in straight sets 6-3 7-6 .AFP PHOTO/PEDRO UGARTE (Photo credit should read PEDRO UGARTE/AFP/Getty Images)

Daniela was leading 6-2 3-0 against Ai Sugiyama in the 1st round singles match when rain started. Play will resume tomorrow.

by Matthew Cronin,Special to FoxSports.com
Updated: August 9, 2008, 8:46 PM EST

Nadia Petrova is ranked No. 18 in the world, but she won't be striking fuzzy tennis balls at the Beijing Olympics because her nation, Russia, is so rich in talent that she missed the cut.

Instead, the 26-year-old and former No.3 is heading to Cincinnati to compete against a small yet talented field that includes former No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo of France and former Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli.

Petrova, who competed in the 2004 Games in Athens and is a member of the Russian Fed Cup team, may not be competing in Beijing, but she has an opinion when it comes to picking who has the best shot to take home gold.

When asked to name five players with the best chance to win gold in Beijing, Petrova selected one Russian in her top 5 — Dinara Safina, the French Open finalist who just won back-to-back titles in L.A. and Montreal. The rest of her list included two Serbians — No. 1 Jelena Jankovic and No. 2 Ana Ivanovic — and Americans Venus and Serena Williams.

SAFINA: "Dinara looks so dominant — her facial expression has changed, her mental approach is different and she looks more grown up," said Petrova, whose mother Nadejda Ilina won the bronze medal at the Montreal Olympics in the 400m relay. "Reaching the French final really helped her confidence. Before she was just going to tournaments and trying to get as far as she could. Now, from what I've heard from her, she has the desire to become to No. 1 and has really set a goal for herself."

IVANOVIC: Petrova is not as enamored with the French Open champion Ivanovic's game and says it is going to be very difficult for the Serbian to impose herself as she's been unable to practice much due to a bad thumb injury.

The 20-year-old has been spectacular at times this year, but has also fallen into mini-slumps, unable to follow up her Parisian success with early exits at Wimbledon and Montreal. Petrova doesn't like Ivanovic's lack of a Plan B.

"She has big strokes, but I don't see much variety in her game," Petrova said. "Whenever something goes off, she's not able to control to the ball."

JANKOVIC: Petrova is a bit more impressed by Jankovic, who just became the first player in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour history to reach No. 1 without playing in a Grand Slam final. But she says that Jankovic's success is based more on her personal happiness than it is on pure ball striking.

"Jelena is very consistent and whenever she's playing she's going for every shot," said Petrova, who lost to Jankovic in L.A. "She's very focused from the baseline and she picks the right moments to go for her shots. As long as she's having fun, she's dangerous, but when she's kind of getting bored then it doesn't work anymore."

WILLIAMS SISTERS: Petrova readily acknowledges how dangerous the Williams sisters can be when healthy, but that's an open question in Beijing as both are coming off knee injuries.

Venus won the gold medal in singles in 2000, and she and Serena won the gold in doubles. But without having played a match on tour since winning her fifth Wimbledon title, Venus will have to round herself into form quickly. The seven-time Grand Slam champion has done so before, but given that she hasn't won a significant crown outside of Wimbledon since 2004 (Charleston on clay), her prospects are very much in doubt. In fact, Venus, a two-time U.S. Open champion, hasn't won a significant hard court tournament since Antwerp in 2003.

Serena is certainly gunning for Olympic gold and U.S. Open glory and told FOXSports.com a few weeks ago that her year won't be satisfactory without one of those titles. But she re-injured her chronically bad knee at Stanford and like her sister is very shaky when she has to play through pain.

THE REST OF THE FIELD: Somewhat surprisingly, Petrova didn't tab another one of her countrywomen, world No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova, as a player to watch. "She hasn't had great results recently, nothing outstanding," Petrova said. "For her it's a matter of will, but she can be dangerous if she has her mind on something."

Here's a few other medal hopefuls in stacked draw: No.5 and 2000 silver medalist Elena Dementieva, who plays the Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko in the opening round; No. 8 seed and teenager Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, who faces Chan Yung-Jan; rising Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, who has shown terrific form as of late; and two other teens, Slovak Dominika Cibulkova — who reached the Montreal final — as well as Dane Caroline Wozniacki, who just won a tournament in Sweden on hard courts.

Dinara on Practice Court