Cibulkova knocks off Bartoli, advances to final after rain delay
MONTREAL -- Teenager Dominika Cibulkova ousted her fourth seeded player of the tournament, rallying after a rain delay to defeat Marion Bartoli 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 Saturday to reach the final of the Rogers Cup.
The 19-year-old Cibulkova, from Slovakia, will play Dinara Safina for the championship. The seventh-seeded Safina was a 6-0, 2-6, 6-3 winner over 11th-seeded Victoria Azarenka in the other semifinal.
"She's a very tough opponent, she proved that this week," Safina said. "She beat some very good players. But it's another match. I just want to focus on myself, playing my game, being aggressive and let's see who's going to be stronger Sunday."
Cibulkova, the world's 31st-ranked player, defeated fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva, 12th-seeded Nadia Petrova, second-seeded Jelena Jankovic and now the 10th-seeded Bartoli to reach her second career WTA Tour final.
Safina improved her record since May 11 to 27-3.
The Cibulkova-Bartoli match was suspended three times for a total of four hours and 11 minutes.
Bartoli took the first set 6-4 before the first interruption. The third time play was stopped, the rain continued for more than three hours with Cibulkova leading 2-1 in the second set.
"It really helped me that it started raining because I was able to go in the locker room and talk to my coach," Cibulkova said. "It wasn't easy to talk to my coach because he was really mad."
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
