World No.1 Dinara Safina solidified her position at the top of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings, as well as her role of the favorite for winning upcoming Roland Garros, with a 6-2 6-4 victory over ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki in the Madrid Open final.

The top-seeded Safina broke the 19-year-old Wozniacki’s serve three times in the first set and early in the second to storm to her 11 career title and second successive title after winning in Rome last week.

The 23-year-old Russian will head to the French Open, where she was a runner-up to Ana Ivanovic last year, on a 10-match winning streak.

Safina has earned €620,000 by winning the Premier-level claycourt event in Madrid, while Wozniacki, who will from tomorrow be ranked 10th in the world, took home €310,000. (photo Getty Images via Yahoo)

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Top seed Dinara Safina and ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki will meet in the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open final to play each other for the first time.

The world No.1 Safina defeated Patty Schnyder 6-4 6-2 in Madrid semifinals. Schnyder had defeated two Top 10 opponents in Madrid, No.10 Nadia Petrova in the third round and No.4 Jelena Jankovic in the quarterfinals, but she fell to Safina, who has moved into her third straight final, and will be going for her second straight title.

This week in Madrid, Safina has reached her 12th final in 20 tournaments. Also, since ascending to the top of the rankings, the Russian has posted a 13-1 record.

In the first semifinal of the day, Caroline Wozniacki beat Amelie Mauresmo 7-6(1) 6-3.

The 19-year old Wozniacki, who has since May 2008 played more matches at Tour level events (including Fed Cup) than any other player, will become the first Danish WTA player to reach the Top 10. She can even climb to No.9 if she defeats Safina in the final. Safina will stay No.1 nevertheless. (photos: Ralf Reinecke, Tennis Channel)

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Former world number one Amelie Mauresmo and soon-to-become a Top 10 member Caroline Wozniacki will meet in the semifinals of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open.

Mauresmo advanced to the final four after fighting back from a set down to beat Agnes Szavay 5-7 6-1 6-1. In the third set, Mauresmo broke Szavay’s serve in the first, third and seventh game.

Earlier on Friday, ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki, who will become the first Danish woman to crack the Top 10, defeated Vera Dushevina 6-0 6-4.

Mauresmo and Wozniacki have never clashed so far, so we’ll watch their first career meeting.

In the other semifinal, world No.1 Dinara Safina, who beat Alona Bondarenko 6-4 6-3, will face the winner of the quarterfinal between fourth seed Jelena Jankovic and Patty Schnyder. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

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Top seed and world No.1 Dinara Safina fought off a gutsy comeback from Lucie Safarova to beat the Czech 6-0 4-6 6-3. Safina raced through the first set, but stumbled in the second to twice lose her serve. In the decider the Russian made a crucial break in the sixth game and later wrapped up the win on the second match point.

Safina will play Alona Bondarenko in the quarterfinals. Bondarenko, who had upset Svetlana Kuznetsova in the previous round, defeated Anna Chakvetadze 6-0 2-6 6-3. The former world No.5 Chakvetadze still hasn’t reached any quarterfinals in 2009.

Fourth seed Jelena Jankovic swept past qualifier Elena Vesnina 6-2 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open where she’ll play Patty Schnyder. Jankovic’s serve was broken two times during the third-round match, but still, she lost only four games to Vesnina.

Seventh-seeded Victoria Azarenka fell to Agnes Szavay 4-6 6-2 6-2 in the third round. Szavay will next face Amelie Mauresmo, who booked her place in the quarters yesterday, along with Vera Dushevina who will play Caroline Wozniacki, the winner over Alisa Kleybanova in their today’s encounter, with the score 6-2 6-2. By winning the match, Wozniacki will crack the Top 10. (photo by our reader Elisa)

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Russian sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova exited the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open in the second round already, and compatriots Elena Dementieva and Nadia Petrova followed her shortly after on Wednesday, in the third round though.

Eighth seed Nadia Petrova lost to unseeded Patty Schnyder at the Premier-level claycourt event. Petrova fought hard, forced and won the second-set tiebreak and even rallied from 4-1 down in the third set, but the Swiss eventually won 6-4 6-7(2) 7-6(5).

Third seed Elena Dementieva took the first set 6-1, but Amelie Mauresmo rallied back to beat the world No.5 1-6 6-4 6-2. The Frenchwoman, who had upset China’s seed No.15 Zheng Jie en route to the third-round encounter with Dementieva, now has a 10-6 career record against the Russian.

Not all Russian players lost on Wednesday: world No.1 Dinara Safina defeated Li Na 6-3 7-6(2), while qualifier Vera Dushevina beat Francesca Schiavone 6-3 4-6 6-2. (photo by our reader Jacob)

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