Palermo (Sicily), July 12: Ninth-seeded Dinara Safina upset no. 3 Francesca Schiavone 6-3 6-2 yesterday in the Palermo International and reached her first tour semifinals in a year.
Safina, the 17-year-old sister of Russian star Marat Safin, won four straight games in the second set to down Schiavone and claim a spot in the last four of a tournament for the first time since she won the Polish Open and became the WTA Tour's youngest ever champion.
She'll meet Ludmila Cervanova, who beat fellow Slovak Henrieta Nagyova, the 2000 champion, 6-1 3-6 7-5.
Fourth-seeded Katarina Srebotnik rallied to beat Ukrainian qualifier Yuliana Fedak 7-5 2-6 6-1, and set up a semifinal with Anabel Medina Garrigues, who knocked out eighth-seeded Virginie Razzano 2-6 6-1 7-6 (3).
Garrigues beat Srebotnik in the semifinals at Bogota in February to reach her third career final.


Bureau Report