DDE09258-7C8A-4DDF-AA0A-71A91E393D17
By Richard Pagliaro
Photo Credit: Costantini/Internazionali BNL D'Italia
(June 3, 2010) The tie breaker was a heart breaker for Elena Dementieva whose tearful exit led to an ecstatic arrival for Francesca Schiavone.
The 29-year-old Schiavone became the first Italian woman in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam final when a tearful Dementieva retired from today's French Open semifinal with what she called a tear in her left calf. Dementieva retired after losing the first-set tie breaker.
"This is fantastic," Schiavone said. "I still don't know what going on but I've made history for Italy and myself and I'm going to enjoy the final."
WTA Tour trainers differed from Dementieva's description of her calf in calling the injury a calf strain.
Dementieva, who did not call for the trainer to take treatment prior to pulling the plug, walked off the court and burst into sobs after seeing her Grand Slam title dreams come to a painful conclusion.
"I have a tear in my left calf so its very painful to walk," Dementieva said. "I got it after my second match. I aggravated it (today). It was a bit too much I couldn't really move on the court.'
Moments after the 17th-seeded Schiavone won the first set, 7-6(3), Dementieva looked up at her mother Vera, sitting in the support box, walked over to her court-side seat, shook a stunned Schiavone's hand then shook hands with chair umpire Allison Lang to abruptly end the semifinal.
It was Dementieva's first retirement in 46 career Grand Slam appearances and the first retirement by a woman during this French Open fortnight.
A startled Schiavone seemed to mouth the word "Me?" to her support box in sheer disbelief, then walked back out onto Philippe Chatier court, bent to her knees and kissed the red clay in celebration of her good fortune.
"I saw just Elena came to me and (she) said 'Sorry I couldn't keep going,' " Schiavone said. "I hope she's going (to be all right). My goal was to stay focused and keep playing. I don't know what's happening to Elena."
Schiavone will face seventh-seeded Samantha Stosur in Saturday's final. The seventh-seeded Stosur won six straight games to seal a 6-1, 6-2 victory over an erratic Jelena Jankovic in a one-hour mismatch.
Stosur, who defeated four-time French Open champion Justine Henin and World No. 1 Serena Williams in succession, has won four of five meetings with Schiavone. Stosur has beaten the 17th-ranked Italian in both of their clay-court meetings, including a 6-4, 6-2 triumph the last time they faced off on dirt — in the opening round of the 2009 French Open.
"I will go on the court and I will fight at the best that I will do it, that I can do," Schiavone said.
The 2004 French Open runner-up to Anastasia Myskina, Dementieva has endured so much drama in her career you might think her story arc was written by Dostoevski. In her post-match press conference, a composed Dementieva said she did not call for the trainer because she could not move and believed treatment would not help.
"I have seen trainer for so many hours before the match all these days, so I don't think that there would be something else that can really help me, you know, at that point," said Dementieva, who added she considered retiring during her .6-7, 6-3, 6-4 third-round win over Aleksandra Wozniak. "I did my best. I did everything I could, but unfortunately it didn't work this time."
Contesting her ninth career major semifinal, Dementieva had won six of her 10 prior matches with Schiavone, but was 2-6 lifetime in her eight prior major semifinals.
In the early stages of the match, it was Schiavone, moving the ball from corner to corner and consistently driving the ball deep, who made inroads into Dementieva's service games.
Dementieva looked at the moving Schiavone rather than the ball and batted a backhand
into the net to give Schiavone a third break point in the sixth game. Running around her backhand, Dementieva drove a forehand winner down the line to save it. Dementieva
worked though a deuce game to hold for 3-all.
Schiavone scattered her first double fault deep to face double break point in the seventh game. On a second serve, Dementieva danced around her backhand and fired a forehand winner down the line to break for 4-3.
The wind picked up in the eighth game, prompting Dementieva to take some pace off her
first serve to avoid hitting a second serve in the swirl. She squandered a 40-15 lead and with the wind at her back and sent successive flat forehands beyond the baseline to hand Schiavone another break point. Dementieva dropped her head and tapped a tentative second serve into net as Schiavone broke back for 4-all.
Dementieva continued to hit the inside-out forehand, her go-to shot, but overplayed it and two more errors helped Schiavone hold for 5-4.
Two games later, Dementieva got to deuce on Schiavone's serve and had the Italian on a string running her side to side in a long, punishing point. Playing determined defense, Schiavone ran down a drop shot sliding into a backhand winner up the line for ad and she held on the next point for a 6-5 lead.
In the tie breaker, Dementieva began to show signs of her calf limiting her movement. She opened a 2-0 lead, but hit a pair of pair drop shots and paid the price. Schiavone reeled off five straight points then reached up and smacked her first ace down the middle to reach set point at 6-2.
Dementieva, who had not ventured to net for much of the match, responded with a daring drop volley winner for 3-6. But three shots into the next point, Dementieva sprayed a backhand well wide, shook her head and pressed her blue Yonex visor down over her face as if trying to mask tears.
Schiavone said she was so focused on the fact she won the set, she didn't really realize what was happening until she looked up and saw Dementieva standing in front of her.
"When I won the first set, I say, 'That's a good way, because I won not to waiting her mistake but to push and to try to do something,' " said Schiavone. "So I was very focused on my tactic and on my play. So was happy to catch that set. Then when I see I was ready to take towel, I did like this, and I saw her too close. I say, 'Maybe something happen.' And for 10 seconds, I don't know how many seconds, but I couldn't realize.Then I know when you shake the hands, it's finish. So then my mind came where I was."
A disconsolate Dementieva walked off the court facing yet another major disappointment.
"Life is life. I mean, sometimes the injury happen, and you have to just take it as an experience and try to take my time to recover," Dementieva said. "I don't even know if I will be playing in Wimbledon."
Schiavone, who will crack the top 10 for the first time in her career on Monday, moves on to Saturday's final hoping she'll share another kiss with the court.
More to follow.