Safina ends Serena's winning streak

BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Dinara Safina ended Serena Williams' 17-match winning streak with a 2-6 6-1 7-6 victory on Friday to reach the German Open semifinals.

The 17th-ranked Russian kept pressuring Williams' backhand, the same tactic that worked a day earlier in her upset defeat of Belgian top seed Justine Henin.

Both players held serve throughout the final set, before Williams let a 4-3 lead in the tiebreaker slip away and sent a forehand long and wide to end the two-hour match.

"It's not like I played my best and lost, it could be worse," Williams said. "I can sit here and name 50 things I could do better."

Williams, chasing a fourth straight title, appeared poised to improve on a 21-1 record this year without trouble until Safina's hard shots began to land in the second set.

Williams was the 10th top-10 victim for the 22-year-old Safina, the sister of two-time grand slam champion Marat Safin. "I think she's playing far better than in the past," Williams said.

With the many upsets at the German Open, where 17 of the world's top 20 players started, Williams said it will be hard to name a favorite for June's French Open. "I'm excited I lost here and not in Roland Garros," Williams said. "The pressure is off me."

After a 2007 slump, Safina said last month's win over Lindsay Davenport at the Sony Ericsson Open restored her belief in her ability to beat the top players.

Safina broke twice to start the second set, whipping a shot past Williams at the net to take a 4-0 lead.

"At the beginning of the game, I was playing like 'oh, I won yesterday' and I had to play differently to get back in the game," said Safina.

"When you work hard and practice all the time, but you don't get the breaks you think 'why, why, why?' This sort of result just shows me that I am moving in the right direction."

Safina will now face unseeded Victoria Azarenka in Saturday's semifinals, after the Belarussian ousted 15th seed Alona Bondarenko 7-6 6-2.

It was the 18-year-old's second win over seeded opponents in Berlin after beating sixth-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze in the second round.

Despite having never won a WTA tournament, Azarenka has contested two finals already this year on the Gold Coast and in Prague.

In a tournament of shock results, fourth seed Jelena Jankovic was another casualty as she was humbled 6-3 2-6 6-3 by Russian seventh seed Elena Dementieva in the third quarterfinal.

Dementieva will now play second seeded defending champion Ana Ivanovic, who defeated Hungarian Agnes Szavay in the other quarterfinal, which was completed on Saturday morning.

The match was suspended in darkness on Friday evening with both players having won a set. On Saturday Ivanovic completed a 3-6 6-4 6-3 victory.

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