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)

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Cosmetics company Oriflame is official Russian sponsor of the Olympic Games and tennis star Elena Dementieva appears in a bunch of photos in their catalog. Here are some of them.

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Jelena Jankovic moved into the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami after Elena Dementieva retired from their quarterfinal match when trailing 6-1 3-1.

The first two games of the match were long, filled with break points, but in the end both those games went into the hands of the fourth-seeded Jankovic. Since that moment, the momentum was on Jankovic's side up until the end of the match.

After decisively losing the first set, tenth-seeded Dementieva took a medical timeout (it seemed she had problems with her back). Then the Russian continued to play, but at the moment Jankovic took a 3-1 lead in the second set, I suppose Dementieva realized there was no way she could beat the superb Serb, and retired from the match before making her back problems worse.

World No.3 Jankovic joined Svetlana Kuznetsova and Serena Williams in the Sony Ericsson Open semifinals, and will next face the winner of the match between Vera Zvonareva and Dinara Safina which is to be played later today. (image via Yahoo)

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Elena Dementieva came from a set down and beat fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 4-6 6-3 6-2 for the title at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships.

World No.11 Dementieva, who became the first-ever Russian singles champion in Dubai, won her ninth career single title today.

Eighth-seeded Dementieva won the Dubai title on her event debut, while second seed Kuznetsova suffered her second loss in Dubai final, last time was in 2004 to Justine Henin.

After Kuznetsova took the first set and won the first game of the second, Dementieva reeled off four straight games to take control of the second and broke serve in the ninth game to send the match to the third set. Read more »

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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)

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