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Dinara Safina Vs Serena Williams final preview


 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 15:21

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Serena Williams and Dinara Safina will meet in the Australian Open final on Saturday after the second and third seeds, respectively, made it through their semi-finals on Thursday.

There is a significant amount of anticipation for this mouth-watering contest. The victor will not only walk away with a Grand Slam trophy (Safinas first and Serenas tenth) but the world No.1 ranking, due to current No.1 Jelena Jankovic crashing out in the fourth round to Marion Bartoli.

The two finalists made light work of their semis. Second seed Williams vanquished Elena Dementieva (6-3, 6-4) in 99 minutes, while Safina battled past compatriot Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 7-6.

Safina and Williams have met on seven previous occasions, with Serena leading the head-to-head at 5-2. The most recent match-up was in November when Serena dispatched Safina at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, 6-4, 6-1. The last time Safina prevailed was at the Qatar Telecom German Open in May 2008, which was a much tighter contest (2-6, 6-1, 7-6).

In a pre-match conference earlier today, the Russian revealed that fighting for the No.1 spot is her dream, while winner of nine Grand Slams, Serena, is more intent on reaching double figures in Slam titles than reaching the No.1 spot again. My goal isnt to be No.1. My goal is to win one more singles match here at the Australian Open, said Serena.

This is the first time that the women’s singles final has taken place at night. The decision was made last May to try and provide more Glitz, glamour and prestige of what we already believe is an incredible highlight of our tournament, Tournament Director Craig Tiley was quoted as saying. It certainly is the highlight of the season so far and definitely an event not to be missed.

Check out the latest odds at oddschecker.

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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.