Elena Dementieva will head into next week's Australian Open riding on a wave of 10 straight wins this year after beating Dinara Safina in an all-Russian final at the Sydney WTA International Friday. The world number four was too composed and consistent for hot and cold Safina and registered a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 win for her 13th career WTA title.
Dementieva, 27, the Beijing Olympics gold medalist and chasing her first Grand Slam crown, is now 5-5 in her series with world number three Safina. "All these matches we play against each other was a great experience for me," Dementieva said.
"When you play nine or ten times in a row, you really know what to expect. It's just a matter of whether you can do it or how focused and tight you can be." She will head to Melbourne for the first Grand Slam tournament of the year buoyed by a winning momentum after ousting top seed Serena Williams in the semi-finals, backed up by her victory over Safina.
"I do have such goals in my career and I'm trying to achieve," Dementieva said. "I don't know if it's going to come soon or not but I'm trying so hard. I do believe, yes." The Sydney final was a rematch of last year's Beijing Olympics gold medal showdown, when Dementieva beat Safina in three sets.
Dementieva, who won the Auckland WTA tournament last week, broke Safina in the seventh game of the opening set and claimed the set with another service break. But Safina, lifted by a courtside pep talk from coach Zeljko Krajan, came out firing in the, second set, reeling off two service breaks to level the final. Dementieva took a time out at the start of the final set and re-emerged to take charge, breaking the second seed three times to claim the championship.
Safina scolded herself for being stupid and ignoring her coach's instructions in the final set. "My coach told me to be much more aggressive," Safina said. "He told me the way I have to play, I did this in the second set and then I ran away from my game. That's means I'm stupid.
"I can say I was just not aggressive enough in the third set and that's why she won. "It's not that she killed me and destroyed me in the third set. It's just that I didn't play my shots." It was the 10th time that Dementieva has been involved in an all-Russian WTA final and has now won five of them.
As Serena Williams and Safina reached the semi-finals in Sydney, Dementieva will stay at four in the world when the new rankings come out on Monday. "The top ranking is quite open for a few players. Anyone from the top five or six, by winning Australian Open, can make it to the No 1 position, which is great. It's going to be very interesting for all of us," Dementieva said.
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