Dinara Safina ends Serena Williams' win streak at German Open

Published Friday May 9th, 2008

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BERLIN - Dinara Safina ended Serena Williams's 17-match winning streak with a 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (5) victory on Friday to reach the German Open semifinals.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Miguel Villagran

Dinara Safina returns the ball against Serena. Safina won the match in 2-6, 6-1, 7-6

The 17th-ranked Russian kept pressuring Williams' backhand, the same tactic that worked a day earlier in an upset of top-ranked Justine Henin of Belgium.

Both players held serve throughout the final set, before Williams let a 4-3 lead in the tiebreaker slip away. The American sent a forehand long and wide to end the two-hour match.

Williams, chasing a fourth straight title, appeared poised to improve on a 21-1 record this year without trouble until Safina's hard shots began to land in the second set.

Williams was the 10th top-10 victim for the 22-year-old Safina, the sister of two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin.

After a 2007 slump, the Russian said a win last month against Lindsay Davenport at the Sony Ericsson Open restored her belief in her ability to beat the top players.

Safina broke twice to start the second set, whipping a shot past Williams at the net to take a 4-0 lead.

She will face Victoria Azarenka in Saturday's semifinal, after the 18-year-old Belarusian ousted 15th-seeded Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine 7-6 (2), 6-2.

Please Log In or Register FREE

You are currently not logged into this site. Please log in or register for a FREE ONE Account.

Logged in visitors may comment on articles, enter contests, manage home delivery holds and much more online. Your ONE Account grants you access to features and content across the entire CanadaEast Network of sites.