Rubin meets

Rubin meets
Dementieva in
final match

Agence France-Presse
Nusa Dua, Bali

Top seed Chanda Rubin will face second seed Elena Dementieva
in a United States versus Russia singles final of the WTA
tournament here on Sunday.

Rubin fought her way into Sunday's US$225,000 championship
match by defeating Japan's Saori Obata, 6-2, 7-5, while
Dementieva advanced with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Maria Vento-Kabchi
of Venezuela.

Rubin, who beat Dementieva at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, said
she is looking forward to Sunday's game.

"Elena is an aggressive player. It will be a great match," she
told reporters.

Dementieva won her match against Vento-Kabchi in 76 minutes
but the Venezuelan managed a good fight in the beginning of both
sets.

The Russian said she won because she managed to control the
flow of the game after falling behind 1-4 in the first set.

"I tried to slow down the tempo when she (Vento-Kabchi) was
winning 4-1 and I won. After that I felt more comfortable,"
Dementieva told reporters.

Had Vento-Kabchi won her game against Dementieva, she would
have given Rubin a chance to redeem herself after losing to
Vento-Kabchi at the US Open.

The Venezuelan's efforts were rewarded, however, when she and
her Indonesian partner Angelique Widjaja won the doubles title by
defeating France's Emilie Loit and Nicole Pratt of Australia, 7-
5, 6-2 in 87 minutes.

Vento-Kabchi, who reached the doubles quarterfinals of
Wimbledon and the US Open with Angelique, said she was ecstatic
with the win.

"We have always come very close to winning a tournament and
today we won. I'm very happy," she said.

Angelique, who has two career singles titles and was the 2001
junior singles champion at Wimbledon, said the pair were able to
win because they were the most aggressive on court.

Vento-Kabchi and Angelique pocketed $10,500 while Loit and
Pratt received $5,600 from the tournament.

In Brussels, world number one Kim Clijsters and her entourage
have decided to snub the Belgian press, it was announced on the
website of the US Open finalist on Saturday.

The decision comes in the wake of controversy the day after
her defeat in the US Open final to compatriot Justine Henin-
Hardenne last Sunday when Flemish media used comments of father
Leo Clijsters pointing out the physical strength of Henin and
implying doping.

A statement on www.kimclijsters.be. said: "In agreement with
Kim Clijsters, she and her entourage have decided not to talk to
the press for an unspecified period of time.

"A list will be published on the website of people to whom
they still wish to talk."

Leo Clijsters has since said that comments attributed to him
were wrong.

"It seems clear that several newspapers and magazines will
from now on be persona non grata because of their offensive
content and other sensational articles," he said.