Safina, Kuznetsova advance to Rome finals

ROME, May 8 (UPI) -- World No. 1 Dinara Safina came from behind and beat Venus Williams in the semifinals of the $2 million Internazionali BNL d'Italia tennis tournament in Rome.

That put Safina into the finals of a clay-court tournament against fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova for the second time in six days. Kuznetsova defeated Safina 6-4, 6-3 Sunday in the title match at Stuttgart, Germany.

Safina has had to work to get to this week's final, including a quarterfinal match in which she was down a set and 1-3 in the second before reeling off 11 straight games. That same resilience was needed against the fourth-seeded Williams before Safina finished off a 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-4 match that took more than three hours.

Kuznetsova, seeded seventh, had a much easier time in her semifinal, taking out sixth-seeded Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 6-4.

Safina is 7-5 against Kuznetsova in her career, including wins in four of their last five meetings. The most recent pairing, however, was Sunday in Stuttgart, where Kuznetsova dropped Safina to 0-3 on the year in title matches.

The winner of their rematch in Rome will take home $350,000.