Tennis Sports News & Betting

Tamarine upsets Safina to reach Ordina final

Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand stayed on course to become the first player to successfully defend the Ordina Open womens title after upsetting top-ranked Dinara Safina 7-5, 7-5 in Fridays semifinals.

Tamarine, who beat Safina in last years final, will play Belgian teenager Yanina Wickmayer on Saturday. Wickmayer overcame a swirling wind and match-point jitters to beat Francesca Schiavone 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3.

Safina is very good and she also played really good, Tamarine said. It was a really difficult match because of the wind.

In the mens draw, qualifier Benjamin Becker rallied to beat fourth-seeded Rainer Schuettler 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 in an all-German semifinal. He will play Raemon Sluiter of the Netherlands, who defeated Ivan Navarro of Spain 6-7 (5) 6-2, 6-3.

Schuettler served for the match at 5-3 in the second set, but Becker broke him twice before sweeping through the final set.

Its a surprise, Becker said. In the first and second sets, it didnt look like I had a chance, but luckily I was able to turn the match around.

After breaking Schiavone with a powerful forehand winner in the eighth game of the final set, Wickmayer squandered three match points – including a double fault and missing an easy volley at the net – before the Italian hit a backhand service return long.

I was a bit nervous, the 19-year-old Wickmayer said. In the end, I was a bit lucky.

Wickmayer will meet either top-ranked Dinara Safina or defending champion Tamarine Tanasugarn in the final. Safina and Tanasugarn were playing later Friday in a repeat of last years final that the Thai won in straight sets.

Both Wickmayer and Schiavone were troubled by strong wind gusts blowing across the grass court.

The wind was a problem, especially against (Schiavone) because she varies her game a lot, Wickmayer said.

Saturday, June 20th, 2009 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Tennis news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.