A first for Schiavone

Francesca Schiavone became the first Italian woman to reach a Grand Slam final on Thursday when Russia's Elena Dementieva retired at the end of the first set of their Roland Garros semifinal.

The 29-year-old Italian won the opener 7-6(3) when fifth seeded Dementieva, who revealed she was suffering from a calf tear, quit in tears after 70 minutes on court.

Schiavone will face Australia's seventh seed Samantha Stosur, who brushed aside Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, the fourth seed, 6-1, 6-2, in Saturday's final.

The tearful conclusion to the match extended Dementieva's unwanted record of having played 46 Grand Slam tournaments without winning a major title, the longest streak in the women's game.

Overwhelming favourite

Having been the runner-up in 2004, she was the overwhelming favourite to reach Saturday's title match.

“I don't know what was wrong. Her decision took me by surprise,” said Schiavone, who reached the semifinal by knocking out world number three Caroline Wozniacki in the last eight.

“But if she pulled out, it must be for a good reason.

“It's fantastic to get to the final. It's a great emotion. I have made history for my country and for myself.” Dementieva, who later admitted she may be forced to miss Wimbledon, said the injury was just too painful to allow her to continue.

“I have a tear in the calf. It's really painful to walk. I suffered the injury in my second round (against Anabel Medina Garrigues) and I aggravated it again today,” said the blonde Russian.

“It was just too much. I couldn't move on court.”

Dementieva said that even had she snatched the first set, she would not have been able to finish the match.

“I tried to fight and play because this is such a special moment and tournament. Even with the pain I tried to play,” she said.

Schiavone, the first Italian woman to reach a Grand Slam semifinal since Silvia Lazzarano here in 1954, wasted break points in the fourth and sixth games of the first set and the Russian made her pay with a break to lead 4-3.

But Schiavone, who will move into the top 10 for the first time next week, levelled in the next game when Dementieva served up her second double fault of the tie and 34th of the tournament.

In such an error-strewn affair, played on a hot, breezy afternoon on Court Philippe Chatrier, and with neither woman able to seize the initiative, it was no surprise that a tiebreak was required.

From 0-2 down, Schiavone took the next six points and then the set when Dementieva unleashed a wild backhand.

It was the Russian's 24th unforced error of the match and, as it turned out, her last as she then walked over to her opponent to shake hands before leaving the court with her head bowed.

Playing in India not ideal Ashes preparations: Ponting

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting says playing on slow Indian wickets before hosting the prestigious Ashes on bouncy tracks will require quite a few changes in the squad.

The Indian cricket board is yet to reach a formal agreement with Cricket Australia (CA), but it is highly likely that the Australian Test side will have two matches against the feisty Indians on slow, spinning pitches as part of their preparations for the Ashes.

“It’s obviously vastly different, if you look at the squad that we could probably put out for the first Test in Brisbane compared with the squad you’d think about playing on a spinning wicket in India, they’re probably two completely different squads,” Ponting was quoted as saying in The Age.

“It’d be nice to get some match hardness into the guys, having not played a lot of Test cricket at that stage, but we’ll come home then and be back into one-day cricket in Australia anyway, so we’ll just have to manage that as well as we can,” he said.

“We won’t be underdone, there’s no doubt about that, we’ll make sure that hopefully every player will get at least two Sheffield Shield games under their belt leading into that first Test, which I think would be really good preparation.”