Safina holds nerve to secure Cibulkova semi

Top seed Dinara Safina overcame a stern challenge by Belarusian teenager Victoria Azarenka and powered into the semifinals with a 1-6 6-4 6-2 victory. Safina will face Slovakian upstart Dominica Cibulkova, who tore apart Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-2. Cool Safina Coolly composing herself after the world No. 9 tore the cover off the ball in the first set, Safina never let down her guard and watched Azarenka implode at the end of the second set and start of the third. Behind razor sharp groundstrokes, Azarenka was able to back Safina off the court during the first part of the match and came back from a 1-4 deficit in the second set to level at 4-4. But then she began playing too impatiently at key moments, and let the contest slip away. Safina broke Miami champion Azarenka to 5-4 in the second set, and then held on to win the set after the Belarusian committed three straight return of serve errors. The temperamental Azarenka then threw her racket to the ground twice and broke it, inciting boos and whistles from the crowd. The pattern continued in the third set, as Azarenka was unable to contend with Safina's change of directions on her groundstrokes and her own nerves. Azarenka consistently chided herself and was on the verge of tears for much of the set and fell under the weight of Safina's experience and greater faith in her shots. Missed chances “I think I just didn't take my chances, which I had,” Azarenka said. “I had a lot of chances, but she definitely stepped it up and played some good points on the key moments, which I have to give her all the credit. It was just something with my emotion. I didn't feel it. I didn't know what was going on. I have no idea.” Safina, who reached the final last year, has won 19 of her last 20 matches and was full of pride after the win, although not totally pleased with her performance. “If I will not fight in the quarterfinal of a Grand Slam and being No.1 in the world, then obviously I'm not deserving this spot,” she said. “I fight till the end. For me the match is never over. But I think today I still didn't play my game. This was not enough. It was enough, my fight, but I hope from the next match that I will play completely different and I'll start to dominate from the first point.” After contesting four three-set matches prior to taking the court against Cibulkova, Sharapova - who just returned to singles play after 10 months off due to a shoulder injury - looked tired trying to run down balls from the baseline. The 20-year-old Cibulkova played extremely steady and while she didn't serve particularly well, she adeptly moved the ball around until she could get into points. Enough is enough “I guess you could only ask your body to do so much,” Sharapova said. “Everything fell a little short today. The pace wasn't there on my strokes, and I was five steps slower today. I think everything kind of combines. The fact is that she just played really solid and made me hit a lot of balls, and I came up short today.” Cibulkova has lost two matches to Sharapova on clay last year, but was determined to extract revenge and controlled much of the action. However, she needed five match points to close the contest out, because in the final moments, she realized that the final four was within her grasp. “It was really tough, because when I was up 6-0 5-0 40-30, in this moment I realized what I can make. I realize I can beat Maria Sharapova 6-0 6-0 and to go to semifinals in a Grand Slam. I got shocked a little bit and I realized everything. But then she hit a great shot, so it was 5 2 and I knew that I was serving and I have to make this game, because then it will be really difficult, you know, if it will be 5-3 5-4. Then I can get really tight.”