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.