September 21, 2003	Sunday	Rajab 23, 1424

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SHANGHAI, Sept 20: Top seed Elena Dementieva fought off a gutsy performance on Saturday by Japan’s Ai Sugiyama, beating the third rank 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the finals of the WTA Shanghai Polo Open here.

The 22 year-old Russian is now one match away from capturing the 585,000-dollar tournament, as well as a second straight title in less than a week after downing Chanda Rubin in Bali, Indonesia.

Dementieva will face Rubin in Sunday’s final, a match she predicts will not be easy despite having trounced the American 6-2, 6-1 a week ago.

Rubin, the number two seed, reached the finals by besting the tournament surprise Akiko Morigami of Japan, 6-0, 7-5, 6-3, in a match where the 27-year-old American squandered chance after chance to put away her fatigued and outclassed opponent.

Dementieva outpowered her smaller but quicker opponent with strong baselining ground strokes.

After a first set riddled with mistakes that gave the Russian an easy 6-1 victory, Sugiyama, 14th in the WTA rankings, stormed back to a 5-2 lead in the second set. She eventually won the set 6-3.

The 28 year-old, who last year bowed out in the semifinals of this tournament to Russian Anna Kournikova, looked on the verge of a comeback as she broke Dementieva in the third set to jump to a 2-0 lead.

Unruffled, Dementieva won the next three games, trading points on long rallies that more often than not saw Sugiyama succumb to unforced errors.

At one point, after missing an easy lob, Dementieva tossed her racket away in disgust.

But the soft spoken Russian, who has jumped to number eight in the WTA rankings since she won her first WTA event last April, said she would never do that again.

In doubles matches, Sugiyama and Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn advanced to the final, after easily dispatching Spain’s Conchita Martinez and Angelique Widjaja of Indonesia 6-2, 6-3.

They will face Emilie Loit of France and Australia’s Nicole Pratt who outlasted Rubin and Switzerland’s Emmanuelle Gagliardi 3-6, 6-4 6-3.—AFP