Elena Dementieva beat fellow Russian Dinara Safina 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 in the final of the Sydney International on Friday to complete a perfect build-up to next week's Australian Open. Dementieva followed up her victory in last week's Auckland Classic to capture her second title this year and extend her unbeaten run to 10 matches this season. She will now arrive in Melbourne as one of the favorites. “I was hoping for a good start but I couldn't imagine I was going to win two titles,” Dementieva said. Safina, ranked one place ahead of Dementieva at number three in the world, has now lost her last three matches to her older compatriot, including last year's Olympic singles final in Beijing, but said she only had herself to blame. Dementieva, 27, took control of Friday's final from the outset, handling the blustery conditions at Sydney's Olympic tennis centre much better than Safina. Dementieva, who upset Serena Williams in the semi-finals, broke Safina's serve twice to wrap up the opening set in 43 minutes. Safina recovered to win the second set after cutting down on her errors following an animated pep talk with her Croatian coach Zeljko Krajan but lost her way in the deciding third set. Dementieva regained her focus in the deciding second set and was ready to carry her form into Melbourne Park, where she will be looking to win her first Grand Slam title. On the men's side Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic blew his chance to leapfrog Roger Federer into second place in the world rankings when he was beaten 6-4, 7-6 by Finland's Jarkko Nieminen in the semifinals of the Sydney International on Friday. Nieminen will play David Nalbandian in Saturday's final after the Argentine beat Richard Gasquet of France 6-4, 6-3 in 81 minutes. “My forehand didn't really work and you could see in all the important moments he served to my forehand and I couldn't put the ball in,” Djokovic said. “Just a bad day. But we keep on going.” The 27-year-old Nalbandian, who has nine tour titles and was a runner-up at Wimbledon in 2002, overpowered Gasquet, relying on backhand winners and attacking the Frenchman's second serve. Nalbandian won nine straight points to close out the first set and open a break in the second. Wawrinka-Federer final In Melbourne, Stanislas Wawrinka set up a final clash with Swiss compatriot Roger Federer in the Kooyong Classic after a tight 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 victory over Chile's Fernando Gonzalez on Friday. World number two Federer advanced to Saturday's final in the eight-player invitational event when he beat Spain's Fernando Verdasco in three sets on Thursday. Former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis, who beat Ivan Ljubicic on Thursday, won his second game of the progression-relegation tournament with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Croatia's Marin Cilic. Kvitova wins Hobart Czech Petra Kvitova beat her Fed Cup teammate and close friend Iveta Benesova 7-5, 6-1 to capture her first WTA title at the Hobart International on Friday. With the pair rooming together in Tasmania during the Australian Open warmup event, Benesova threatened to take her revenge by booting Kvitova out of their hotel. Del Potro-Querrey In Wellington, top seed Juan Martin del Potro will play sixth seeded American Sam Querrey in the Auckland Open final after both advanced to the title match in contrasting style on Friday. Querrey recovered from a set down and saved a match point to beat Spanish second seed David Ferrer 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 before Del Potro overwhelmed third-seeded Swede Robin Soderling 6-4, 6
