After a stunning start to the season in which she captured her eighth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and a Tier I crown at Miami, Serena Williams cooled off somewhat, never advancing beyond the quarterfinals at her next six events.
But she has been back in top form this week, not dropping a single set to reach her third final of the year here in Moscow, and will try to win her first Kremlin Cup title on Sunday afternoon. Standing in her way will be one of the tournament’s top
performers, Elena Dementieva, who is playing her third final here.
Although she hasn’t come away with her home title yet Dementieva has now reached the semis or better six of the last seven years, a feat considering this has been a Tier I since 1997. Although Williams leads the head-to-head by 4-0, Dementieva has shown impressive form this week, regrouping to beat Alicia Molik in three sets in the first round and then blowing past her last three opponents in straight sets, including pulling off a 61 60 demolition of Dinara Safina - conqueror of defending champion Anna Chakvetadze - in Saturday’s semifinals.
Serena eyes her 29th career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title, and 19th at the Tier I level or above.
Williams’ record in Tour singles finals includes 18-8 at the Tier I level or above, although it is effectively 17-8, as Davenport gave her a walkover at the 2001 Tour Championships; of the eight losses, two are to Venus Williams (1999 Miami, 2001 US Open), two are to Sharapova (2004 Wimbledon, 2004 Tour Championships), two are to Henin (2002 Berlin, 2003 Charleston), one to Hingis (2000 Montreal), one to Clijsters (2002 Tour Championships).
By winning her quarterfinal match against Nicole Vaidisova, Williams assured herself of surpassing $2 million in prize money for the season (just the second to do so after Justine Henin, who currently has $4,185,086 this year) and $18 million for her career (the sixth woman to do so); she could pass Venus for No.5 all-time (see Page 2)
Only one player in the Kremlin Cup’s 14-year history has reached the semifinals or better more than three times, and that player is Elena Dementieva, who has now reached her third career final here (also 2001 and 2004); she will chase her eighth career Tour singles title and the second at the Tier I level or above (2006 Tokyo [Pan Pacific]).
Dementieva has done well as an underdog in the past; she had the first 13 of her 33 career victories over Top 10 players while she was ranked outside of the Top 10; she notched another 19 whilst inside the game’s elite, then just last week in Stuttgart notched her 33rd (over then-world No.10 Daniela Hantuchova) for the first time since dropping out of the Top 10 herself earlier this year; she is also 3-3 lifetime against Top 10 players in Moscow.
In the 13 previous finals here, Americans have gone 0-2 (Davenport and Monica Seles had one runner-up finish each) while Russians have gone 3-5 (two of those titles were Anastasia Myskina’s, one was Chakvetadze’s).
Cara Black and Liezel Huber try to win their seventh Tour doubles title of the season, their first six titles including the Australian Open and Wimbledon; they are playing their first event since a second round loss at the US Open.
Victoria Azarenka and Tatiana Poutchek have won one Tour doubles title together, at 2006 Tashkent (Tier IV). (WTA)
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