Safina overcomes slow start to reach French Open final

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Dinara Safina wobbled early on but eventually sailed through to the final of the French Open with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova in Paris on Thursday.

MOSCOW, June 4 (RIA Novosti) - Dinara Safina wobbled early on but eventually sailed through to the final of the French Open with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova in Paris on Thursday.

Svetlana Kuznetsova will try to set up the second all-Russian women's final at Roland Garros when she takes on Australia's Samantha Stosur on Thursday afternoon.

Safina got off to a slow start, trailing 0-2 after losing her first service game to open the match, but she then reeled off five straight games before clinching the set on her fifth set point.

The Russian world No. 1 also started the second set slowly, trailing 2-1 on serve before taking a 3-2 lead and pushing on to seal the match.

It is the second straight French Open final for Safina, who lost to Serbian Ana Ivanovic last year but hit the top of the Women's Tennis Association rankings this April and has since won the titles in Roma and Madrid.

The Rome triumph came with a victory over Kuznetsova, who had beaten Safina a week earlier in the final in Stuttgart.

However, Safina has never won on the biggest stage, losing in this year's Australian Open final to Serena Williams and taking the silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when compatriot Elena Dementieva took the gold.

 

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