It was a battle of Russians in one semifinal that saw Lena D. dispatch Casper the Crying Ghost.
This semifinal was of very high quality with great hitting from both players. Good on Lena, though. She's had a very solid year so far and now she'll get a chance to avenge her RG collapse against ...
What a nervy match. Neither Dinara or Li Na played particularly well. Dinara threw in DF after DF and every time you thought Li would would stop up and take advantage she crumbled, throwing in UFE after UFE. To be honest, it was a hard match to watch, which was unfortunate.
That being said, it was understandable. Because the Dinara/JJ match was postponed a day, Li had a full day and a half to think about her incredible win over Venus. As for Dinara, she may have to take the mantle of "Iron Woman" from Ai Sugiyama. She was on court yesterday for over 2 hours against JJ, then had to turn around 3 hours later to play her doubles match, which saw her on court until 3am local time. A little over 12 hours later she had to take the court for this SF. So kudos to her for getting through.
But a great tournament from Li, who took out Kuzzie and Venus on her way to the SF. For her to take the gold she would have had to go through the top 3 Russians anyway. A tall task for a player that's just now finding her form after injury.
Anyway, no shocker here. I'm rooting for Safina. But whoever wins it'll be a feel good story. Lena deserves some redemption and with her play the second half of this season she deserves a title (she's been derailed twice now by Safina, at Berlin and RG). And Safina deserves the gold for her play over the past three months. No one can argue about that.
Dinara in 3. And for the record, I am rooting for a Russian sweep. So go Casper!
