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Dementieva sets up Oudin clash in Paris

By KarenWalker (TennisEarth.com), Submitted On

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Top seed and arguably the best player never to have won a Grand Slam, Elena Dementieva came through a tough three set win over Andrea Petkovic of Germany to reach the semifinals of the 2010 Open GDF Suez, being played here in Paris, France.

Dementieva trailed Petkovic 6-3, 2-0 at one point but rallied to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in a two hour and 15 minute battle to secure her place in the last four of the event.

"We had never played before but I watched her against Rezai yesterday and she was playing well," Dementieva said. "She really had nothing to lose. She went for her shots and took a lot of risks. To turn it around I really needed to be aggressive and once I started doing that I was able to take control."

In another quarterfinal match, American Melanie Oudin found her groove back in Paris and made the semifinals with a hard-fought 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Hungarian Agnes Szavay. With the win, she set up the SF clash with Dementieva, whom she beat in the pair's only previous meeting at the U.S. Open last year.

In the day's all-Italian quarterfinal match, Flavia Pennetta beat Tahiana Garbin 6-1, 6-3 in just 58 minutes of play.

Re-live the moments of Pennetta's on-court brilliance, click here.

She now meets Czech star Lucie Safarova who crushed Israeli Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-0 in barely 53 minutes to reach the semifinals of the event.

Re-visit the action-packed moments of Safarova-Peer clash, click here.

"I really enjoy this tournament," said Safarova. "I have very good memories from 2007 and I was excited to come back here. I really like the city as well. It's a big tournament and I would like to keep playing this well in the future."

Safarova reached the final in 2007 and lost to Russian Nadia Petrova.