Safina books final spot

Dinara Safina dug in to book her place in the French Open final with a straight sets win over Dominika Cibulkova.

Top seed through after straight sets victory

Dinara Safina dug in to book her place in the French Open final with a straight sets win over Dominika Cibulkova. The top-seeed Russian, who was beaten by Ana Ivanovic in the 2008 final at Roland Garros, was forced to fight harder than the 6-3 6-3 score suggests. However Safina was able to edge out Cibulkova to end the Slovakian's impressive run in Paris. Cibulkova had broken Safina in the opening game to lead 2-0, however the Russian hit back in decisive fashion, rattling off five games on the bounce. The diminutive 20th seed pulled the score back to 5-3 but she could do little to stop Safina wrapping up the first set in 49 minutes. Safina was forced to fight all the way in the second set as Cibulkova, who had beaten Maria Sharapova in the last eight, tried to level the match, however the Slovakian was guilty of wasting five break points. And 23-year-old, who lost to Serena Williams in this year's Australian Open final, kept alive her hopes of a first Grand Slam title by taking her second match point. Safina will now face either Svetlana Kuznetsova or Sam Stosur in the final.