Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Zheng Jie in a tight two-setter to set up a clash with top seed Jelena Jankovic in the final of the $600,000 China Open in Beijing.

The Russian fourth seed, last week's runner-up in Tokyo, defeated Chinese crowd favorite Zheng Jie 7-6 (3) 7-5. Wimbledon semifinalist Zheng reached the final four with a triumph over second-seeded Ana Ivanovic.

Kuznetsova leads Jankovic 4-2 in their head-to-head. This year they have met twice, in Dubai and Tokyo, and both times the Russian was victorious.

The 2008 China Open titlist will earn $95,500. (photo: Getty Images)

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Dinara Safina powered to her fourth title of the season with a solid 6-1 6-3 victory over fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Powerful Safina, seeded fourth, lost only one game in her Tokyo semifinal against Nadia Petrova, and in the championship match against Kuznetsova she took the first set giving away only one game. A third break in the second set sealed the victory.

In addition to this year’s titles in Berlin, Los Angeles, Montreal, and Tokyo, the 22-year-old Safina has been in three other finals, including Roland Garros and the Beijing Olympics. The fifth-seeded Kuznetsova, on the other hand, didn’t manage to win her first title of the season and lost in a final for the fourth time.

Safina currently sits at a career-high of number five in the world and is projected to move to spot number three in the rankings.

Safina will collect $196,900 for the win at this Tier I tournament, while Kuznetsova earned $105,800. (photo via Yahoo)

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Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina both claimed comfortable straight-set wins to advance into the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

The fourth-seeded Safina won her first in six matches against Nadia Petrova and the score was more than impressive, 6-1 6-0. With the victory, in-form Safina moved into her seventh Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles final of the year.

Kuznetsova, the fifth seed, beat Slovenian qualifier Katarina Srebotnik 7-6(5) 6-2. Kuznetsova, who recently lead Russia to a win over Spain in the Fed Cup final, started slowly before taking the first set, but at 2-2 in the second, she won four straight games to win the match.

Safina will be bidding for her fourth title of 2008 (after Berlin, Los Angeles and Montreal), and Kuznetsova for her first. (photos: Getty Images)

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In the Sunday's Fed Cup final, Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues 5-7 6-3 6-4 to give the Russian team an unassailable 3-0 lead.

On Saturday, Vera Zvonareva beat Anabel Medina Garrigues and Svetlana Kuznetsova dismissed Carla Suarez Navarro, so Russia took a 2-0 lead.

The Russian team have won their fourth Fed Cup title in five years. They were the champions last year too, beating Italy in the final.

"It was a tough match and I was never really close," said Medina Garrigues.

"She really stepped up on the big points (but) we can't criticize this team - we did very well to get to the final and we can be satisfied overall."

Russia has six players in the Top 20 and it comes as no surprise they were able to retain the trophy despite the absence of some of their aces.

UPDATE: Final score was 4-0 as Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina  defeated Spain's Nuria Llagostera Vives and Carla Suarez Navarro 62 61. (photo via Yahoo)

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The 2004 champion and last year’s finalist Svetlana Kuznetsova lost 6-3 6-7 6-3 in the third round of the US Open to Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia.

Third-seeded Kuznetsova was erratic and made 36 unforced errors, while Srebotnik played consistently on every front and served 13 aces. Kuznetsova said Srebotnik had played an "unbelievable" game.

No.28 seed Srebotnik will play in the fourth round of the US Open for the first time. Her best results at Grand Slams were reaching the fourth round of Roland Garros in 2002 and in 2008.

Srebotnik will face seed No.15 Patty Schnyder for a place in the quarterfinals. (source: Reuters, photo: Getty Images)

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