Safina beats Azarenka for place in Berlin final

By Iain Rogers

BERLIN (Reuters) - Dinara Safina of Russia booked a place in the German Open final with a 6-4 6-1 win over unseeded Belarussian teenager Victoria Azarenka on Saturday.

The 22-year-old 13th seed has beaten world number one Justine Henin and eight times grand slam winner Serena Williams this week and will play Serbian holder Ana Ivanovic or fellow Russian Elena Dementieva in Sunday's final.

Safina, younger sister of former men's number one Marat Safin, faced a stiff challenge from 18-year-old Azarenka in the first set, losing her serve twice in the sunshine at the Steffi Graf stadium.

But the Belarussian appeared to be struggling with a knee injury in the second set, which severely hampered her movement, and Safina cruised to victory in just under 1-1/2 hours.

It was her first match against Azarenka, who has had her best run at a tier one event in Berlin and will break into the top 20 for the first time when the rankings are updated.

World number two Ivanovic, a finalist at the French Open last year, plays seventh seed Dementieva in their semi-final later on Saturday.

The Russian has won all three of their previous meetings but they have never met on clay.

Ivanovic needs to reach the final to hold on to her world number two ranking otherwise Russian former number one Maria Sharapova will overtake her.

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