Lawn Tennis
French Open - Roland Garros
Paris, France, May 25-Jun. 8, Grand Slam The French Open - Roland Garros
May 25th-June 8, 2008
Paris, France
French Open - Roland Garros
Paris, France, May 25-Jun. 8, Grand Slam
Can Dinara Safina Stop Ana Ivanovic From Rising?
French Open "Paris Picks" - Day 14

By Tripp Mateschitz, Lawn Tennis Correspondent, Posted: Friday, June 6, 2008 10:30pm CST USA
Can Dinara Safina Stop Ana Ivanovic From Rising? French Open
Photos by Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty and Laurent Baheux/AP
PARIS, France (lawntennismag.com)—Thanks in part to her reaching this year's Australian Open and French Open finals, on Monday Ana Ivanovic of Serbia will claim the WTA Tour's world number one ranking regardless of the result of Saturday's final. Dinara Safina of Russia, younger sister of former world number one Marat Safin, however could render Ivanovic a finalist once again if she can deliver one final claycourt victory to cap off her stellar claycourt season.
Dinara Safina of Russia has won her last twelve matches in a row; all on clay.

Dinara Safina (RUS)[13] v. Ana Ivanovic (SRB)[2]
Head to head Ivanovic leads Safina 2-1 but she lost their only meeting on clay at Berlin in 2005 6-1, 6-4. Ivanovic's two wins versus Safina occurred a year later in 2006. Both players have matured into different players since that time.

After losing in the 2007 Paris final to recently retired world number one Justine Henin 6-1, 6-2, Ivanovic appeared to have her nerves under better control in important matches this year before again losing to current world number one Maria Sharapova of Russia in the Melbourne final 7-5, 6-3. They say the third time is the charm, but I don't think it will be so for Ivanovic.

Safina has won her last twelve matches in a row, all on claycourts defeating Henin, Sharapova and 2002 Paris champion Serena Williams of the USA. Ivanovic lost two claycourt matches in a row before Paris.

Both players will attempt to control the points from the baseline with power groundstrokes. Ivanovic looked good in her semifinal versus fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic hitting big and believing in herself, but Safina has looked even better coming back from matchpoint down in the fourth round and quarterfinals.

Winner: Safina

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