Dementieva fends off a hard-charging Sugiyama to reach WTA final
Dementieva fends off a hard-charging Sugiyama to reach WTA final
Agence France-Presse Shanghai, China
Top seed Elena Dementieva fought off a gutsy performance on Saturday by Japan's Ai Sugiyama, beating the third seed 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the finals of the WTA Shanghai Polo Open here.
The 22-year-old Russian is now one match away from capturing the US$585,000 tournament, as well as a second straight title in less than a week after downing Chanda Rubin in Bali, Indonesia.
Dementieva will face Rubin in Sunday's final, a match she predicts will not be easy despite having trounced the American 6- 2, 6-1 a week ago.
"It's difficult to play someone you just played and beat very easily," Dementieva said.
Rubin, the number two seed, reached the finals by besting the tournament surprise Akiko Morigami of Japan, 6-0, 7-5, 6-3, in a match where the American squandered chance after chance to put away her fatigued and outclassed opponent.
Dementieva outpowered her smaller but quicker opponent with deep and powerful ground strokes.
After a first set riddled with mistakes that gave the Russian an easy 6-1 victory, Sugiyama, 14th in the WTA rankings, stormed back to a 5-2 lead in the second set. She eventually won the set 6-3.
The 28-year old, who last year bowed out in the semifinals of this tournament to Russian Anna Kournikova, looked on the verge of a comeback as she broke Dementieva in the third set to jump to a 2-0 lead.
Unruffled, Dementieva won the next three games, trading points on long rallies that more often than not saw Sugiyama succumb to unforced errors.
"I can't say there was any point where I felt I could win the match. It was a very close match," said Dementieva.
"Only when it was love-40 on her serve did I feel a little chance to win."
Dementieva said she felt somewhat sluggish on the court after a late-night match on Friday.
At one point, after missing an easy lob, Dementieva tossed her racket away in disgust.
But the soft spoken Russian, who has jumped to number eight in the WTA rankings since she won her first WTA event last April, said she would never do that again.
"I still remember when I didn't have any rackets, or they were made of wood," she said, "so I don't think I'll do that again."