Dementieva and Safina find form ahead of US Open
Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina are through to the quarter-finals of the Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale tournament, with both the former Grand Slam runners-up toughing out important second-round wins in New Haven.
Dementieva, whose ranking has this week dropped five places out of the top 10 to world No. 13, took a touch more than three hours to finally win past Kateryna Bondarenko 76(4), 67(5), 64 and book a place in the final eight of the US Open warm-up.
It’s a welcome win for the 28-year-old, who started the year in sizzling form – winning the Sydney International and Paris [Indoors] titles and bowing out to Justine Henin in the second round of the Australian Open in what may still be the highest quality women’s match we’ve witnessed this year – but whose US Open preparations have been less than spectacular.
Since returning from the leg injury that forced her withdrawal in the French Open semi-finals and kept her out of Wimbledon, Dementieva had managed only two wins and three losses heading into New Haven as she failed to progress beyond the second round in Stanford, Cincinnati (first-round loss) and Montreal.
"It [the match against Bondarenko] was a long, physical game, but I had to hang in and find a way to win. I just want to play as many matches as I can," Dementieva said, presumably alluding to the fact that with the US Open starting on Monday, she’s fast running out of time to fine-tune her game.
While the hard-fought win against Bondarenko is good news for the Russian heading to Flushing Meadows, it’s also worth noting that whether or not Dementieva progresses any further in New Haven (where she next faces the double-handed Marion Bartoli) even by reaching the quarters at this tournament she’s now bettered her results in the lead-up to the French Open, where she reached the final four almost on one leg.
Dementieva, an Olympic singles gold medallist and runner-up at the US Open in 2004, is joined in her return to form by Russian counterpart Safina, who defeated Daniela Hantuchova in two tiebreak sets to reach the final eight in New Haven.
The former world No. 1 has endured a 2010 plagued by back problems and subsequent form struggles but in Montreal (where she reached the third round) and now New Haven is finally starting to string some wins together, just in time for the US Open too.
The top seed in New York last year, Safina is unseeded in 2010 and her victories over French Open champion Francesca Schiavone and now Hantuchova at the Pilot Pen (and 21st-ranked Nadia Petrova at the Rogers Cup last week) leave the world No. 59 poised to be a dangerous floater in this year’s US Open draw.
That’s not to say the 24-year-old is quite ready on current form to win that major title that has thrice eluded her in Grand Slam finals as she rose to the top of the rankings, but there can also be little doubt that hers is not the name any of the seeds would like to hear read out next to their own when the US Open draw is announced later today.
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