Safina battles through to French Open semis in Paris
Russian world No. 1 Dinara Safina was forced to battle her way to the semifinals of the French Open on Tuesday after a thrilling three-setter against Victoria Azarenko from Belarus.
Safina, who had dropped a mere five games en route to the quarterfinals, lost the first set in 23 minutes as the Belarusian teenager, seeded ninth, came out and attacked from the go.
In the second set the 23-year-old Russian started to apply some pressure and finally broke the feisty teenager`s serve in the ninth game before running away with the decider to win the match 1:6, 6:4, 6:2.
In a post-match interview Safina was cited by the tournament website as saying "I started to fight point by point just trying to change a little bit," and added "I`m not really happy with my game today."
Safina will now play Dominika Cibulkova, seeded 20, of Slovakia who had an emphatic win over Russia`s Maria Sharapova 6:0, 6:2.
In the men`s quarterfinals Russian Nikolai Davydenko, seeded tenth, was crushed in straight sets 6:1, 6:3, 6:1 by Sweden`s Robin Soderling, who knocked out top seed Rafael Nadal in the fourth round.
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