Safina holds on to knock out Sharapova

Dinara Safina saved a match point before emerging as a 6-7 7-6 6-2 winner of an all-Russian catfight with world number one Maria Sharapova in the fourth round of the French Open on Monday.
The 13th seed, who had already beaten Sharapova in the last 16 at Roland Garros in 2006, will play her third grand slam quarter-final against compatriot and seventh seed Elena Dementieva.
The two arguably delivered the finest match of the women's tournament so far, with Safina, younger sister of former men's world number one Marat Safin, eventually coming out on top after two hours and 52 minutes.
Sharapova made the best start, taking the first break with a crosscourt backhand winner as Safina failed to convert her chances.
Safina finally broke on her seventh break point, which came in the eighth game, and both players held serve until the tiebreak.
The world number 14 opened up a 6-4 lead but Sharapova saved the set points by forcing her opponent into two mishit backhands and claimed the two points she needed to bag the first set after 68 minutes.
MISSING TITLE
Safina threw her racket to the ground in a show of temper reminiscent of her brother, possibly earning her the future nickname of 'Marata'.
The opening games of the second set went with serve but Sharapova broke for 4-2 with a sharp backhand winner down the line.
She held serve to go 5-2 up and it looked like Safina would bow out.
The 22-year-old from Moscow had a match point against her at 5-3 and saved it with a bold backhand winner down the line and went on to break back before forcing another tiebreak.
The Australian Open champion got off to the best start and was two points from the match, only for Safina to win five points in a row to win it 7-5, the last one when Sharapova's backhand clipped the net and bounced wide.
Although she threw away a 40-0 lead on her serve to fall behind after the first game of the decider, Safina broke back to love with both players holding serve until the sixth game, when Sharapova conceded another break by netting a forehand.
An exhausted Sharapova found herself unable to run for the ball and bowed out when she sent a forehand wide on the second match point.
The French Open remains, for at least another year, the only grand slam title missing from Sharapova's collection.