World No.1 Dinara Safina claimed her first title since climbing to the top of the rankings with a 6-3 6-2 victory over fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

Safina has won her first singles title in 2009, playing her fourth final of the season. Last week Safina and Kuznetsova faced each other in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix final, but Kuznetsova then won 6-4 6-3. It was Kuznetsova’s first title in seven final appearances and first trophy since 2007. Oops, her curse in title matches may be back already.

The world No.8 Kuznetsova is projected to climb to No.7 in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings for the week of May 11, 2009, while Safina will remain No.1.

Winning the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, Safina has won €620,000. Runner-up Kuznetsova has earned €310,000. (photos by our reader Elisa)

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Magnificent Dinara Safina beat magnificent Venus Williams 6-7(3) 6-3 6-4 in a powerful battle of two hard-hitters and one of the best matches of the season, to reach the final of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. The semifinal lasted three hours and nine minutes, and I believe that tells enough.

The fourth-seeded Williams won the first set after a one hour and 10 minutes long fight. Safina had come back from a break down to level at 5-5, but lost in the tiebreak (isn’t it horrible when a player recovers from a bad situation only to lose in a tiebreak?). Nevertheless, Safina took the match to the third set. The decider was full of breaks, with Williams always coming back from behind, but as I said, always coming back, Safina never kept the lead for long. Finally, at 5-4 Safina was serving for the match and after saving some break points, the Russian world No.1 finally converted her third match point to beat the American.

It’s a real joy to watch Safina play when she has consistency, and against a great opponent such as Venus Williams, there’s nothing more you can ask for.

In-form Svetlana Kuznetsova, who ended her title drought in Stuttgart last week, reached her second consecutive final by defeating sixth seed Victoria Azarenka 6-2 6-4 in the semifinals. The seventh-seeded Kuznetsova will be Safina’s opponent in an all-Russian final in Rome.

As for world No.5 Venus Williams, she will retake the No.3 ranking on May 11. She hasn't been ranked that high in six years. (photos: Tennis Channel)

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Quarterfinal matches were taking place today in Rome, and most notably, top seed and world No.1 Dinara Safina survived one more three-setter, while finally-noticeable Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated two-time defending champion Jelena Jankovic.

World No.48 Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez had scored victories over Amelie Mauresmo, seed No.11 Marion Bartoli and seed No.8 Nadia Petrova prior to meeting Dinara Safina in the quarterfinals. The 26-year-old Spaniard even took the first set from Safina, and had a 3-1 lead in the second, but the master of recovery won the match 4-6 6-3 6-0.

Safina will play fourth seed Venus Williams in the semifinals. Williams advanced with her first two-setter at the tournament, beating tenth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1 6-2.

Seventh-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova has been in the shadow for quite some time, but her shiny days are back as last week she won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, and now she has reached the Internazionali BNL d’Italia semifinals taking out third seed Jelena Jankovic 6-1 7-6(3). After winning the first set, the Russian came through a nervy second-set tie break to avenge her defeat in the 2007 final.

Kuznetsova’s next opponent will be sixth seed Victoria Azarenka, who beat Kaia Kanepi 7-6(5) 6-3. (photo: Tennis Channel)

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Ana Ivanovic’s preparations for the defense of her French Open title suffered a setback as she was defeated 6-1 3-6 6-4 by Agnieszka Radwanska in the third round. Interestingly, the Serb was leading 4-0 in the third set, but the tenth-seeded Radwanska won six games in a row to advance to the quarterfinals.

World number one and top seed Dinara Safina almost joined Ivanovic in saying goodbye to Rome, but she fought back from a double break down in the third set to beat Chinese 14th seed Zheng Jie 5-7 6-1 7-6 (3) in a thrilling third-round match.

Third seed Jelena Jankovic, who is aiming for her third consecutive Internazionali BNL d'Italia title, felt good on the court and was leading 6-1 1-0 when her opponent Kateryna Bondarenko retired with illness.

Svetlana Kuznetsova is continuing her good period with a 6-3 3-6 6-0 victory over Flavia Pennetta, while Patty Schnyder, who upset self-proclaimed world No.1 Serena Williams in the previous round, fell to seed No.16 Kaia Kanepi 6-3 6-0. Victoria Azarenka advanced by beating Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-2. Also, notice that world No.48 Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, who upset No.11 seed Marion Bartoli in the second round, today defeated No.8 seed Nadia Petrova 6-4 6-7(5) 6-4. The last to join the quarterfinals was Venus Williams who defeated Anna Chakvetadze 6-0 6-7(8) 6-4.

Quarterfinal pairs: Safina vs. Petrova, V. Williams vs. A. Radwanska, Kuznetsova vs. Jankovic, Azarenka vs. Kanepi. (photo: Tennis Channel)

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Serena Williams, who on Monday stated that she was the real No.1 and not Dinara Safina, suffered a 6-2 2-6 6-1 defeat by Patty Schnyder in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

The world No.20 Schnyder was upset by Sabine Lisicki in the first round of Stuttgart last week, but this week in Rome she managed to keep her record on clay against Serena Williams perfect and improved it to 3-0.

The match between "the best in the world", as Williams called herself on Monday, and Patty Schynder was postponed until 11pm because of rain.

The world number two Williams has now lost her last three matches (Miami final, Marbella first round, and this latest one in Rome) – only the second time this has happened in her career. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

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