Dementieva ousts Ivanovic

2008-05-10 18:58

Berlin - World number two Ana Ivanovic suffered a surprise 6-2 7-5 defeat by Elena Dementieva in the semi-finals of the German Open on Saturday.

The 20-year-old Serbian, the title holder in Berlin, made far too many unforced errors and was broken five times by the Russian seventh seed.

Dementieva will play compatriot Dinara Safina in Sunday's final. The 13th seed, who has beaten world number one Justine Henin and eight-times grand slam winner Serena Williams this week, defeated unseeded Belarussian teenager Victoria Azarenka 6-4 6-1 in the first semi-final.

A former finalist at both the French and US Opens, Dementieva had won all three previous matches against Ivanovic but they had never met on clay.

She shrieked with joy when Ivanovic skewed a backhand wide on the Russian's first match point.

"She's a great player but I think I was a little bit better today," Dementieva said in a courtside television interview.

Abandon their match

Ivanovic was playing her second match of the day in the Steffi Graf stadium, the number two seed having earlier won the deciding set in her quarter-final against 10th-seeded Hungarian Agnes Szavay.

The pair had to abandon their match late on Friday due to bad light with the score at one set each.

Safina, the 22-year-old younger sister of former men's number one Marat Safin, faced a stiff challenge from 18-year-old Azarenka in the first set, losing her serve twice.

However, the Belarussian appeared to be struggling with a knee injury in the second set which severely hampered her movement and Safina cruised to victory in just under 1-1/2 hours.

"The first set was really tough and I think it was the key of the match," she told a news conference.

"In Russia we say that God loves three so I hope it can be third time lucky for me in the final," she said, adding that this had probably been the best week of her career.

Azarenka has had her best run at a tier one event in Berlin and will break into the top 20 for the first time when the rankings are updated.

Ivanovic had needed to reach the final to hold on to her world number two ranking and will now be overtaken by Russian former number one Maria Sharapova.

- Reuters