Dinara Safina, seeded No 13, was far from unlucky, was the first to move into the final French Open, on the way winning to Maria Sharapova, the top seed, with two match points against Dinara, Elena Dementieva, seeded No 7, being down 2-5 in the second set, and Svetlana Kuznetsova, the No 4 seed, easily winning 63 62.
After playing Kuznestova, Dinara said:
"The first set was really important, because I got the early break then lost my serve, then she was 3-2 up... it was important to get through it, because once I won that set, I felt like there was no pressure," she said. "After yesterday's match, I thought there was a chance my level would go a bit down. But when I was a set up the fire came and I really started to fly."
"Being a point away from losing two times already, I was thinking, 'God kept me in this tournament,'" Safina said. "I couldn't be passive anymore. I knew I had to play aggressive, because there would be no third time. After losing these fears, there were no more emotions inside. You just know what you have to do."
Kuznetsova wasn't so pleased with her performance, which ended up giving her a -3 differential in winners-unforced errors (20-23). This was her first loss in four career major semifinals (having won the 2004 US Open and finishing runner-up here in 2006 and at the US Open last year), and it wasn't even that competitive.
"It was pretty horrible," Kuznetsova said. "First of all, I want to give her lots of credit. She has been playing very well. She was pushing me away from the court, so I was pretty far behind the baseline. And I couldn't fight her because I was also fighting against myself. I couldn't serve, I couldn't hit my forehand, I was probably playing my worst. I just wasn't comfortable out there and it showed."
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