Safina not satisfied despite win

Dinara Safina today passed her first serious test at the French Open to stay on course for the Roland Garros title.

The Russian breezed through her opening four matches this tournament, dropping just five games on the way, but she was given the runaround at times today by ninth seed Victoria Azarenka in a riveting quarter-final.

Safina, the new world number one, finished the stronger to post a 1-6 6-4 6-2 victory on a sun-kissed Philippe Chatrier court but she admitted it could have been very different.

"She was playing well and I was doing nothing to complicate it for her," said Safina, who was pegged back to 4-4 at one stage in the second set.

"I was playing exactly in her zone, everything to the middle. At least I should have been holding my serve and putting pressure on the return.

"But then she started to miss more. I think she missed way too much today.

"I'm not really happy with my game."

Azarenka played a near-flawless first set, the Belorussian running Safina ragged on both wings with inch-perfect placement and consistency.

She was playing her first grand-slam quarter-final but she only started to tense up in the second set, and the errors suddenly came.

At 4-4, the 19-year-old was still in with a great chance of causing a shock.

"I just didn't take the chances I had," Azarenka admitted.

"She definitely stepped it up and played some good points at key moments, which I have to give her credit for.

"At 4-4 in the second set, I didn't really do anything with my game, which I should have. I just have to learn to play better in these moments. It's all experience."

Safina will meet 20th seed Dominika Cibulkova in the semi-finals.

The Slovakian ended Maria Sharapova's impressive run at Roland Garros by thrashing the former world number one 6-0 6-2 on Suzanne Lenglen court.

It threatened to get embarrassing for Sharapova, now 102 in the world after a shoulder injury - she faced a match point when 6-0 5-0 down.

"Everything fell a little short today," Sharapova said. "The pace wasn't there on my strokes.

"And she made me hit a lot of balls. She was very solid and did the right things to win."

Asked about how she felt when staring down the barrel at a whitewash, Sharapova said: "I don't really care about numbers. It's either a 'W' or an 'L'.

"If it's 7-6 in the third and you come out with a loss, what's the difference?"

Cibulkova needed several match points to finally see her more esteemed opponent off, and she admitted she was shocked to find herself in such a position.

"When I was 6-0 5-0 and 40-30, that's when I thought, 'What is happening?'," Cibulkova said.

"That's too much against Maria. That's maybe why I missed the first match point, because I was thinking too much."