Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova meet in women’s final

TODAY’S WOMEN’S FINAL

(world rankings in parentheses)

Dinara Safina, Russia (1), vs.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia (7)

They played on clay in a final in Rome on May 10, and Safina won. They played on clay in a final in Stuttgart on May 3, and Kuznetsova won. They played a French Open semifinal in 2008, and Safina won. They played a French Open quarterfinal in 2006, and Kuznetsova won. They’ve played eight times on clay, and each has won four. They’ve played 13 times overall, and Safina has won eight. They’ve played and they’ve played and they’ve played -- all the way back to age 12 or 13, when Kuznetsova was the girl from St. Petersburg, Safina the girl from Moscow. Kuznetsova: “This story goes waaay back.” Safina: “She was a funny girl.” Kuznetsova: “I had no chance against her.” Safina: “I mean, you would look at her, and it was like, ‘No way she can be one day, like, winning Grand Slam [which she did, the 2004 U.S. Open].” Kuznetsova: “She was very good then, and then her brother was huge. I was coming to Marat [Safin], ‘Hey, I know your sister Dinara. Can you give me autograph?’ ” So again they play. Viewed with a wide lens, it’s rather incredible.

A FRENCH MORSEL

The grand tradition of checking clay courts to double-check the calls of linespeople entered a creative new realm on Friday, when Fernando Gonzalez grew enraged in the fourth set of his five-set semifinal against Robin Soderling. Gonzalez thought a Soderling shot landed wide. The linesman called it good. Chair umpire Stefan Fransson hopped down, per ritual. He also called it good. “That drove me crazy,” Gonzalez said. So he played the familiar role of tennis jerk. He threw a fit. He mocked the linesman. Then, making extremely trivial history, he sat down and rubbed out the mark with his derriere. No one had ever seen that before. No one hoped to see it again.

NEWS FROM THE DETHRONED

Four-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal, bounced shockingly in the fourth round by Soderling, withdrew Friday from the Wimbledon warmup at Queen’s Club, where he is the defending champion, citing doctors’ advice to rest his knees.

STAT OF THE DAY

634: the number of points played in two five-set men’s semifinals -- one 3 hours 28 minutes in duration, the other 3:29.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Gonzalez, 28, on whether he found it “bad luck” to have Nadal removed but still run into a scorching Soderling in a semifinal: “Bad luck is being the same age as Federer and Nadal. That’s bad luck.”

-- Chuck Culpepper