© Vincent BaslerTanasugarn Beats Safina for Second Career Title
's-HERTOGENBOSCH, The Netherlands - Going into the final of the Ordina Open, the stars certainly seemed lined up for Dinara Safina to win. She had won 15 of her last 16 matches, spent less than half the time on the court than her opponent during the week and won their only previous meeting handily. But on the day that prophecy was emphatically proven false, as Tamarine Tanasugarn beat her in straight sets to capture the key Wimbledon warm-up title.
As a qualifier facing the No.3 seed, Tanasugarn already seemed to be coming from behind. And when Safina snagged the first break of the match in the ninth game for a chance to serve the first set out at 5-4, things didn't look great for the Thai. But she broke right back and won 10 of the last 12 points of the set to take it, 7-5. The second set remained largely on serve, but Tanasugarn got the critical break in the seventh game and after surviving a lengthy 16-point service game - in which Safina had five points to get the set back on serve - David finally overcame Goliath, 75 63.
"Maybe it was more difficult for Dinara, as she was seeded and playing really well lately, and I was coming out of the qualies; that could have put some pressure on her today," Tanasugarn said. "After she had the chance to serve out the first set I think her level fell a bit, and once I got to the second set I felt great, and that I could really win this match."
Tanasugarn had arguably the best week of career, coming away with her second and biggest Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title at the Tier III event. She notched straight set wins over both Bondarenko sisters (new Birmingham champion Kateryna in the first round and No.8 seed Alona in the semifinals) and three set wins over Ashley Harkleroad, Krajicek and Safina. She was even almost down and out against Harkleroad in the second round, rallying from 5-3 down in the third to win, 46 64 75.
Tanasugarn was definitely not intimidated by Safina's No.9 ranking. After all she had four Top 10 wins to her name going into the final and two of those came in the minute grass court season in 2001, over Nathalie Tauziat and Amélie Mauresmo. This surface also fuels the Thai veteran's best attribute - her flat, compact groundstokes - and she has capitalized on that in the past, reaching one of her other six career finals at Birmingham in 2000 (falling to Lisa Raymond) and making the fourth round of Wimbledon an impressive six times (in fact, her love for grass is no more evident than in her Grand Slam record: 23-11 at Wimbledon, 28-32 at the other three majors combined).
After barely batting .500 to start the season (she was 11-10 coming out of Charleston), Safina has now won 15 of her last 17 matches, winning her first Tier I singles title on the red clay of Berlin, reaching her first Grand Slam singles final at Roland Garros (falling to Ana Ivanovic in the final) and now reaching another final at 's-Hertogenbosch. She is now 0-2 lifetime in grass court finals, having finished runner-up right here at 's-Hertogenbosch two years ago (finishing runner-up to Michaella Krajicek).
"I just have to forget my match today because I played some pretty good matches earlier this week and today was just not my day," Safina said. "I want to give lots of credit to Tamarine, I think she played a solid match - but I want to forget this match as soon as I can. I'm leaving for London today, I'll have today and tomorrow off and then Wimbledon starts. So I will have to get ready for that as soon as I can."
Safina was one of three Top 10 Russians in the field this week. She took out one of the other ones, No.1 seed Elena Dementieva, herself in the semifinals; No.2 seed Anna Chakvetadze, who was the defending champion, lost to Alona Bondarenko in the quarterfinals.
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