PARIS — Dinara Safina cursed at herself in English, muttered to herself in Russian and generally carried on in much the same manner of older brother Marat Safin.
Safina's face bears a striking resemblance to Safin's, and she shares his broad shoulders, too. Both have been ranked No. 1 — the only brother-sister combo to do so — and now Safina is one victory from joining Safin as a Grand Slam champion.
Yearning to justify her ranking and live up to her bloodlines by winning a major title, the top-seeded Safina overcame a poor start Thursday, then held her temper in check enough to beat No. 20 Dominika Cibulkova 6-3, 6-3 and reach a second consecutive French Open final.
"I'm trying to control my emotions," Safina said. "I'm not playing my best, but still, it's not easy to beat me."
Safina has won 20 of 21 matches since rising to No. 1 in April. The only woman to defeat her in that span, 2004 U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, will get another crack at Safina on Saturday in the third all-Russian major final in tennis history.
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The seventh-seeded Kuznetsova seemed well on her way to an easy semifinal victory, but she stumbled a bit before getting past No. 30 Samantha Stosur 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3.
"She's going to be favorite to win," Kuznetsova said, looking toward her match with Safina. "She's No. 1. She played an unbelievable season."
Safina holds a 7-4 career edge over Kuznetsova, including a win in last year's French Open semifinals. The two go back about a decade, to age 12 or 13, when Kuznetsova was living in St. Petersburg, and Safina in Moscow, where her father was the director of a tennis club and her mother was a coach who started Safin on his way to the 2000 U.S. Open and 2005 Australian Open titles.
"I had no chance playing against her. I remember, I lose to her 6-1, 6-0 or something," Kuznetsova said.
In the men's semifinals today, No. 2 Roger Federer will play No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro, and No. 12 Fernando Gonzalez will meet No. 23 Robin Soderling.
Federer is trying to win his first French Open championship, which would complete a career Grand Slam and tie Pete Sampras' record of 14 major titles. Federer lost to Rafael Nadal in the past three finals at Roland Garros, but the Spaniard is no longer around. Nadal was upset by Soderling in the fourth round.
"At this stage, I expected I would be in semifinals," Federer said, "but I was not expecting Rafa to be out before the semifinals."
The women's semifinals figured to be mismatches: Neither Stosur nor Cibulkova had been past the fourth round at any Grand Slam tournament until this week — and neither has won a singles title on tour.
"I was just lost on the court today," Cibulkova said. "I didn't manage it well."
Cibulkova did well in long exchanges at the baseline against Safina. Each woman won 15 points that lasted at least 10 strokes.
When Cibulkova lured Safina forward with a drop shot, then flicked a cross-court backhand passing winner, the underdog led 2-0. In the next game, Safina missed a forehand and let out a bit of frustration by whacking a ball into the net. She would do worse later — after failing to win an argument with the chair umpire, Safina slammed a ball off the court, drawing whistles and jeers from the crowd. But it all seemed to get her pointed in the right direction.
Safina hears the voices of those who question the validity of a woman without a Grand Slam title topping the rankings.
"How much more proof I need to give the people that I think I deserve that spot?" Safina said.
A win over old pal Kuznetsova on Saturday would do the trick.
TV TODAY
• What: Men's semifinal
• When: 10 a.m. on Channel 4
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