TENNIS At long last, Ginepri will play in final

ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEWPORT, R.I. -- Robby Ginepri and Jurgen Melzer won semifinal matches Saturday at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships to advance to an ATP final for the first time in their careers.
Ginepri, a semifinalist at Newport last year and the No. 4 seed, beat Gregory Carraz 6-3, 7-6 (5). He was one of 12 Americans in the field for the tournament that began Monday.
The eighth-seeded Melzer defeated Bob Bryan 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 (5) and will face Ginepri today.
Ginepri, who lost to eventual champion Taylor Dent in last year's semifinals, overcame five break points in the 10th game to even the second set 5-all.
In the tiebreaker, he pulled ahead 6-5 when Carraz flubbed a service return. Ginepri then won the set with a backhand passing shot.
"I've been waiting for this day for a while," Ginepri said. "You work so hard throughout the tournament. Just one more match to go."
After winning the first set in just 19 minutes, Melzer had his serve broken in the ninth game of the second set. In that tiebreaker, he used an overhead, backhand smash to go up 6-5. Bryan botched a backhander on a service return, giving Melzer the match.
Earlier in the day, Boris Becker was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame along with Francoise Durr, Nancy Richey and Brian Tobin.
WTA
PALERMO, Sicily -- Ninth-seeded Dinara Safina won eight straight games to defeat Ludmila Cervanova 6-4, 6-0 and advance to the final of the Palermo Invitational.
She will face fourth-seeded Katarina Srebotnik, who made short work of Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-2 in the other semifinal of the $110,000 tournament at the Country Time Club on Saturday.