World No.1 Dinara Safina was playing on the first day of the Banka Koper Slovenia Open in Portoroz and beat young Slovenian hope Tadeja Majeric 6-0 6-4 in the first round.

Before the tournament started, top seed Safina, the only Top 20 player in the draw besides Anabel Medina Garrigues, had been accompanied by Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik for a cruise on the Adriatic Sea, and later they played an exhibition match in the Tartini Square in Piran, a historic coastal town. After the exo, Safina and Srebotnik visited the city hall where they were greeted by Tomaz Ganter, the Mayor of Piran Municipality.

The $220,000 Banka Koper Slovenia Open is giving Safina an early opportunity to adjust to the last major surface change of calendar in Europe, before heading to the States where she will play in Los Angeles, Cincinnati and Toronto before heading to New York. (source: Slovenia Open)

World number two Serena Williams has today won her 11th Grand Slam title, and in the post-match presser she wasn’t as polite as her sister Venus, but instead made fun of the WTA ranking system and hence of the current top-ranked player Dinara Safina.

Here’s what Serena said in the interview:

Q. How much of a motivation is it for you to try and regain the world No. 1 ranking?

SERENA WILLIAMS: You know, I'm not super motivated. I think if you hold three Grand Slam titles maybe you should be No. 1, but not on the WTA Tour obviously, so…

You know, my motivation is maybe just to win another Grand Slam and stay No. 2, I guess (laughter).

Q. Does that disappoint you?

SERENA WILLIAMS: No. If it did, I would go crazy just thinking about it. I think anyone really could. That's just shocking. But whatever. It is what it is. I'd rather definitely be No. 2 and hold three Grand Slams in the past year than be No. 1 and not have any.

Q. Do you see yourself as No. 1?

SERENA WILLIAMS: I see myself as No. 2. That's where I am. I think Dinara did a great job to get to No. 1. She won Rome and Madrid (laughter). (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Semifinal pairs are set at Wimbledon: twice defending champion Venus Williams will play top seed Dinara Safina, while last year’s finalist Serena Williams will face Elena Dementieva.

Five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams wasted little time in defeating 11th seed Agnieszka Radwanska. Williams raced to a 5-0 lead in 18 minutes and won the first set in just 27 minutes. Radwanska was coping better at the start of the second set and even got to 0-40 in game two, before converting her first chance to break. However, the third-seeded Williams wasn’t really threatened and broke two times in a row to get to 5-2 and soon after she sealed a 6-1 6-2 victory.

World number one Dinara Safina, who is not a fan of grass and has never before went further than the third round at Wimbledon, came back from a set down to overcome unseeded Sabine Lisicki 6-7(5) 6-4 6-1, the winner over ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki in the fourth round. Safina remained on course for a first Grand Slam title, despite her unconvincing game and 15 double faults.

Fourth seed Elena Dementieva crushed Francesca Schiavone 6-2 6-2 and advanced to the Wimbledon semifinal for the second year in a row. The last to join the semifinalist was second seed Serena Williams who beat eighth seed Victoria Azarenka 6-2 6-3.

It's the first time since 2006 that all four top seeded players reached the semifinals. (photos: Life)

The 2009 French Open championship match was much shorter and less thrilling than we had expected, with Svetlana Kuznetsova quickly defeating favorite Dinara Safina 6-4 6-2 in an-all Russian final. To make things worse, the world No.1 Safina double-faulted on the championship point.

The top-seeded Safina opened the match which began with an exchange of breaks. In the eighth and ninth game there was another exchange of breaks, and both players had a 40-0 lead on their opponent’s serve. Despite being quickly broken back in the ninth game, Kuznetsova broke Safina yet again in the tenth game, and took the first set.

In the second set, the seventh-seeded Kuznetsova earned breaks in the sixth and eighth games, to prevent the 23-year-old Safina from claiming her maiden Grand Slam title.

Safina has failed to crown her spectacular clay-court season, including her impressive run to the French Open finals, by losing her third Grand Slam final and second successive at Roland Garros. The 23-year-old Kuznetsova won her second Grand Slam title in her fourth major final.

Moreover, we are still having a shaky and slamless player on top of the rankings. Safina had an excellent chance, as well as ability, to make herself stand out from the rest, but she wasted the opportunity and hence failed to restore balance in women’s tennis.

The 74-minute match is the eighth consecutive straight sets women's final at Roland Garros. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

This is probably the first time I was successful at predicting finalists, Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova have been by far my strongest favorites for Roland Garros title. The top-seeded Safina and seventh-seeded Kuznetsova defeated their semifinal opponents, Dominika Cibulkova and Samantha Stosur respectively, to make an all-Russian 2009 French Open final.

World number one Dinara Safina reached her second successive Roland Garros final by capitalizing on a series of costly errors from Slovakia’s world number 19 Dominika Cibulkova to win a scrappy match 6-3 6-3.

"I'm trying to control my emotions. I'm not playing my best, but still it's not easy to beat me," said Safina.

The 2006 French Open runner-up Kuznetsova served for the match in the second set and then squandered a 5-2 lead in the tiebreak, but recovered her nerve in the decider to defeat surprise semifinalist Samantha Stosur of Australia. Stosur will be a member of the Top 20 when the rankings are released on Monday.

Match-up: The 2006 US Open champion Kuznetsova will be competing in her fourth Grand Slam final, and Safina in her third. Safina leads their head-to-head record 8-5, and she won their last match, in the Rome final. However, Kuznetsova is the only player to have beaten Safina on clay this season. This should be the most thrilling French Open final we could get right now. (source: BBC, photos: Tennis Channel, Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)