World number eight Elena Dementieva reached the quarterfinals of the Internazionali d’Italia on Thursday as she dismissed Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld in three sets, 7-6, 3-6, 6-1.
After racing to a 5-2 lead early in the first set, Dementieva found herself levelled at 5 and had to dig deep to take the set to a decisive tiebreak. In the tiebreak Dementieva once again showed her quality when it comes to tiebreaks and eventually wrapped it up 7-1.
In the second set Groenfeld came out firing winners and her powerful strokes damaged Dementieva’s defences, who failed to hold, eventually leading to a 6-3 in favour of Groenefeld.
But showing she’s no beginner Dementieva brought up her superior game and in the third set the German was waxed 6-1.
Next up for Elena will be world number nineteen Dinara Safina. Safina recorded one of the wins of her career on Thursday as she dismantled Kim Clijsters in straight sets 6-4 and 7-6. Safina had never beaten Clijsters in their six previous meetings and had even failed to claim a single set in those six matches.
In the head-to-head series Dementieva and Safina are tied at one with Safina claiming the first match back in 2003 in Berlin when Dementieva retired during the third set. Dementieva claimed their second meeting in the US Open back in 2004 in the first round in three sets. Dementieva would go on to reach her second grand slam final.
On Other results on day four of the Internazionali d’Italia from Foro Italico include Martina Hingis’ trashing of home hope Francesca Schiavone 6-0, 7-5 and Jelena Jankovic’s win over an always difficult Katarina Srebotnik. Also making headlines is Romina Oprandi, playing in her home country, who completely razed Vera Zvonareva 6-0 and 6-1. Still to play are Venus Williams and Patty Schnyder.
