Eighth seed Elena Dementieva defeated Francesca Schiavone 5-7 7-5 6-2 in the second semifinal of the day, and will face fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the Saturday’s final of the $1.5 million Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships.

Despite trailing 3-5 in the first set, Schiavone – who sensationally ended Justine Henin's unbeaten run in the tournament – took the early initiative by winning four successive games to claim the set. But world No.11 Dementieva, who is making her event debut in Dubai, began to impose her authority and closed out for the match without too many difficulties.

Earlier in the day, second-seeded Kuznetsova defeated Jelena Jankovic to advance to the final, her second this season (the first one was in Sydney where she lost to Justine Henin).

The 2007 US Open runner-up Kuznetsova is 5-3 lifetime against Dementieva, including a victory in the 2004 US Open final. (via BBC, photo Getty Images)

Eighth-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia beat third-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 5-7 6-3 6-3 to reach the semifinals of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships.

The match was very close. Both players faced many break points. World No.2 Ivanovic was the first to be a break up in the deciding third set. However, she wasted that opportunity, as well as the fact that she could come back in the game when Dementieva was serving for the match, as she saved astonishing five match points.

In the semifinals, world No.11 Elena Dementieva plays unseeded Francesca Schiavone, who upset Justine Henin, previously unbeatable in Dubai. The other semifinal features Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Jankovic. (photo via Getty Images)

This month, Canada's street-style magazine PEACE published an interview with Elena Dementieva, together with beautiful photographs of the Russian, who has recently won the Kremlin Cup title with the victory over Serena Williams.

The part of the interview I found most interesting was Dementieva’s story about her rib injury (more precisely, three broken ribs!) which had sidelined her from playing tennis for almost two months. Additionally, in the interview Dementieva pointed out Ana Ivanovic as the next young player to become world number one. Read more »

Elena Dementieva claimed her first Kremlin Cup title on Sunday with a 5-7 6-1 6-1 victory over fourth-seeded Serena Williams in their fifth career meeting.

This title has a special significance to the Russian, since it is her first title on home soil in her 11th Kremlin Cup appearance. Before she had lost two finals at the tournament in Moscow, in 2001 and 2004.

After losing the first set, world No.14 Dementieva came back strong, breaking Williams three times in each of the next two sets. During the match, Williams made 59 unforced errors to her opponent’s 31.

"She just played really unbelievable, she should play like that more often," said world No.7 Serena Williams.

"I'm not going to make excuses for myself. I played terrible. I had a feeling that almost every shot I hit, it was out."

Having won her eighth career title, Dementieva earned $182,000 and took her record against Williams to 1-4. (source: Reuters, photo via Yahoo)

Elena Dementieva was a tough opponent, she battled and kept the match uncertain, but world number one Justine Henin was simply too strong and advanced to the semifinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart with a 6-4 6-4 victory.

Russian Dementieva had several break points in the first game, but didn’t convert them. Then, Henin went to a 5-0 lead, and when everyone thought that the Belgian top seed is impressively going to take the first set, Dementieva held two of her serves and made two breaks! Wow! However, Henin won the first set 6-4 when Dementieva double-faulted. The second set was also uncertain with Henin making three breaks, Dementieva two. Read more »