Reach women's final Dinara Safina French Open 2009

Dinara Safina defeated Dominika Cibulkova, of Slovakia, in straight sets to reach the final at Roland Garros for the second successive year.

In this age of tall women smacking the hell out of tennis balls, there was undoubtedly something refreshing about Cibulkova, who, at 5ft 3in, could barely see over the net of Court Philippe Chatrier, and who was attempting to become the shortest grand slam champion in the modern era.When Justine Henin won her four French Open titles, the Parisians used to marvel at how someone that short, with the Belgian's height listed as 5ft 5in, could be so successful.



But, if you stood her next to Dinky Dominika, Henin would look like a relative giant. Cibulkova, who was appearing in her first grand slam semi-final, looked even smaller when she was on court with Safina, who is eight inches taller, and has brother Marat Safin's broad shoulders.

It looked as though Cibulkova could have crawled into Safina's racket-bag and zipped herself up from the inside.Safina, who won the two warm-up tournaments in Rome and Madrid, certainly did not have everything her own way against Dinky Dominika, with the Slovakian breaking in the first game of the match.Safina, who went through 6-3, 6-3, is now just one more victory away from winning a first slam.

Safina, who went through 6-3, 6-3, is now just one more victory away from winning a first slam.