Russia's Dinara Safina came back from a set down for the third time in the tournament to win the Qatar Telecom German Open on Sunday with a 3-6 6-2 6-2 victory over compatriot Elena Dementieva.

World No.17 Safina beat three Top 10 players – No.1 Justine Henin, No.6 Serena Williams, and finally No.9 Elena Dementieva — on route to her first Tier I title, and sixth career singles title. Read more »

Seventh seed Elena Dementieva defeated defending champion Ana Ivanovic 6-2 7-5 at the Qatar Telecom German Open to set up an all-Russian final against Dinara Safina.

Ana Ivanovic is yet to beat Elena Dementieva, as she now trails the Russian 4-0 in head-to-head terms. In today’s semifinal, Ivanovic made too many unforced errors. She had a set point in the second set, but an all too familiar unforced error saw her chance disappear. Because the Serb didn’t manage to reach the final in Berlin, she’ll drop to No.3 in the rankings and Maria Sharapova will rise to No.3.

In-form Dinara Safina, who beat Justine Henin in the third round before ending Serena Williams's 17-match winning streak, advanced to the Qatar Total Open final with a 6-4 6-1 victory over Victoria Azarenka. Safina, seeded 13th, had to twice battle back from a break down in the first set against 18-year-old Azarenka. But in the second set, Azarenka seemed to be struggling with a knee injury, and Safina cruised to victory in just under one-and-a-half hours. Anyway, Belorussia's Azarenka is projected to crack the Top 20 for the first time on the new rankings — she will rise from No.26 to No.19. (via BBC)

World No.17 Dinara Safina first upset No.1 Justine Henin at the Qatar Telecom German Open, and on Friday the Russian has continued her impressive run winning a thrilling three-setter over another Grand Slam champion, Serena Williams.

The result shows the excitement of the quarterfinal — 2-6 6-1 7-6(5) — Safina came back from a set down and pulled off the victory in the tiebreaker. Safina described the win over world No.6 Serena Williams as "one of the best matches of my life".

In the semifinals, seed No.13 Safina will face unseeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus who defeated the 15th seed Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine 7-6 6-2.

Defending champion Ana Ivanovic played a quarterfinal against Agnes Szavay, but at one set all, the match was called off due to bad light. They will continue the match on Saturday. The winner of the match between Ivanovic and Szavay will meet Elena Dementieva after she beat Jelena Jankovic in an up-and-down 6-3 2-6 6-3 win. (source: BBC, photo via Craig Hickman)

Lindsay Davenport produced a stunning victory yesterday, sending home world No.2 Ana Ivanovic, but the American couldn’t repeat such an impressive level of tennis in the last 16 and fell to Russian Dinara Safina 6-3 6-4.

In other completed matches on Monday, world No.1 Justine Henin saw off Elena Vesnina 6-2 6-2, while Venus Williams defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-3 6-3 and set up a quarterfinal against Svetlana Kuznetsova, who beat Shahar Peer 7-6 6-3. (photo via Getty Images)

Third seed Anna Chakvetadze succumbed to fellow Muscovite Dinara Safina 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 at the $1.34 million Kremlin Cup on Thursday. Chakvetadze’s defeat is just a continuation of a series of upsets at the Moscow tournament.

World No.6 Chakvetadze held two set points in the first set tiebreak and couldn’t convert them. In the second, set she saved two match points, but eventually fell to the world No.17.

Safina heads into Friday's quarterfinals against another countrywoman, Vera Zvonareva, who is working to regain her former high standing on the tour. (source: Women Who Serve, photo via The Anna Chakvetadze website)