February 11, 2007	Sunday	Muharram 22, 1428

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PARIS, Feb 10: Rising Czech star Lucie Safarova stunned top seed Justine Henin 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to reach the final of the 600,000-dollar WTA Paris Indoor Open here on Saturday.

The unsung and unseeded 20-year-old continued her stunning run in Paris with a dogged and battling performance to come from behind in both sets against the Belgian world number two.

Henin held a 5-2 lead in the first set and also had two set points but she could not convert on either and was eventually taken to a tie-break. Safarova held her nerve to snatch that 7-5 and take the ascendancy.

Henin did not buckle, though, and broke in the fifth game of the second set before holding serve for a 4-2 lead.However, fresh from confidence-boosting victories against fifth-seeded compatriot Niclole Vaidisova and Russian third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the previous two rounds, Safarova just let her shots go after that and Henin was left helpless.

A day after earning glowing praise from French teenager Tatiana Golovin for her new style of attacking net play, Henin was powerless against Safarova's rasping ground-strokes.

From 4-2 down the Czech did not give up another game and completed victory with a typically thrashing return from a second serve that Henin did well just to get her racket to.

The win sets up a possible repeat of her Australian Open meeting with world number three Amelie Mauresmo, who plays Nadia Petrova in the other semi-final.

Safarova shocked the then reigning champion Mauresmo in straight sets in Melbourne last month.—AFP