Sydney, January 16:

Elena Dementieva will head into next week’s Australian Open riding on a wave of 10 straight wins this year after beating Dinara Safina in an all-Russian final at the Sydney WTA International on Friday.

The World No 4 registered a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 win for her 13th career WTA title. Dementieva, 27, chasing her first Grand Slam crown, is now 5-5 in her series with World No 3 Safina.

In men’s section, Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen cashed in on Novak Djokovic’s shaky forehand to send the top seed crashing out. The 40th-ranked Nieminen savoured one of his finest results on the ATP Tour to reach Saturday’s Sydney final with a fighting 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) win.

Left-handed Nieminen, who only reached the semi-finals on a walkover from injured Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, will play Argentina’s David Nalbandian in the final. Nalbandian, who has a 6-4 win record over Nieminen, reached his 20th career ATP final with an untroubled straight sets win over Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the other semi-final.

Nalbandian, the World No 11, stretched his unbeaten record over Gasquet to seven matches with an authoritative 6-4, 6-3 win in 74 minutes.

Kooyong Classic

MELBOURNE: It will be an all-Swiss tennis final Down Under on Saturday when Roger Federer squares off against Stan Wawrinka for honours at the Kooyong Classic.

Wawrinka, who won the doubles gold medal with Federer at the Beijing Olympics, will take on his partner in the final after a gutsy 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (1/7), 6-4 win over Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez on Friday. Federer won his two previous matches against Wawrinka — in 2005 in Rotterdam and 2006 in Dubai — and both men will be looking to put the final polish on form for the Australian Open, which starts on Monday.