Russia's Elena Dementieva returns the ball to Serbia's Ana Ivanovic during their match at the WTA Dubai Tennis Championships February 28, 2008.
Photo: Reuters
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Russia’s Final in Dubai Is Possible
Russia’s Elena Dementieva finally crushed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in the quarter-finals at the WTA Dubai Tennis Championships February 28, 2008. The prize fund of the tournament stands at $1.5 million.
Dementieva next plays Italian Francesca Schiavone, who saw off Justine Henin. In the other half of the draw, Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova opposes Serbian Jelena Jankovic, i.e. the chance is that it will be the Russian final in Dubai in the end.
Elena Dementieva, who is the 11th in the WTA ranking now, needed all three sets (5-7 6-3 6-3) to beat No. 2 Ana Ivanovic. Predicting the favorite of the match wasn't easy. The Russian, 26, had 2-0 winning record against the Serb and could count on experience, but Ivanovic benefited from the youth, excitement, aggressiveness and higher ranking, of course.
The girls were equal in the first set, each of them took two serves of opponent to bring the score to 5-5. In the next two games, pushing Anna first easily won her serve and than broke 7-5 at Dementieva’s serve, leaving no chance to Elena.
The Russian recovered at the score of 1-2 in the second set to advance to the optimistic 2-5. Anna broke but had zero at her serve to raise Dementieva’s spirits before the decider, where she was victorious.
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