Marat inspired me,says Safina

Russia's Dinara Safina says big brother Marat Safin inspired her to reach the Australian Open final, even if his scathing comments were sometimes "rough" and "not very nice".

Safina will claim her maiden Grand Slam and become the world number one if she beats Serena Williams in Saturday's decider, emulating her brother who won the men's title at Melbourne Park in 2005.

The 22-year-old said that victory fuelled her own desire to make it at the majors, describing her eleder brother as her idol. "It was just an amazing feeling when he won it," she said. "For us tennis players, a Grand Slam, it's something very big. "To know that he won it, it was just an unbelievable feeling. It made me (feel) that I also want this, to have it one day." But she admitted the win was initially overshadowed by Safin's damning public assessment of her when she crashed out of the 2005 tournament in the second round with a straight sets loss to Amelie Mauresmo.

"She needs to have a character and she needs to be a little bit grown-up woman,' he said at the time, adding that "she has to learn the hard way" as he questioned her fighting qualities. Safina said the "not very nice" comments upset her at the time and she still felt her brother had not fully understood what she was going through at the time. "Well, you know, he didn't know what was going through my mind because I didn't talk to him too much," she said. "He's not really a guy who has enough patience for this, to have a woman's talk.

"Sometimes it's tough to explain to him what I have been going through. I think it was a little bit rough, what he said at that time." However, Safina revealed Safin had been more complimentary in a text he sent after she reached the final, which said simply: "Well done."

Australian Open: Sania and Mahesh is Mixed doubles final!

Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi entered the mixed doubles final at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Friday.

The unseeded Indian pair got the better of Czechs Iveta Benesova and Lukas Dlouhy 6-4, 6-1 in a 54-minute semi-final encounter.

They will take on Nathalie Dechy of France and Andy Ram of Israel, who shocked the seventh seeded Spanish combination of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Tommy Robredo 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 in the other semi-final.

Sania and Bhupathi, who were runners-up at Melbourne Park last year, trailed 1-3 in the opening set before rallying to victory.

It was hardly the kind of start Sania and Bhupathi, who dropped just one set en route to the semis, would have wanted as Benesova and Dlouhy broke them in the opening game to race to a 3-1 lead. However, the Indians got their act together soon and broke back twice to take the first set in 32 minutes.
They continued in the same vein in the second set and broke thrice. Such was their hold over the proceedings that they did not face a single break-point in the second set, which they wrapped in a mere 22 minutes.

The win is double delight for Bhupathi, who along with Mark Knowles of the Bhamas has also made it to the men's doubles final, to be played on Saturday.

Bhupathi has six mixed doubles Grand Slam titles under his belt with different partners. His last mixed doubles Grand Slam crown was incidentally the Australian Open in 2006 when he had partnered Swiss Martina Hingis [Images]. Sania, however, is aiming for her maiden Grand Slam title.

Earlier, Venus and Serena Williams won the women's doubles title, beating Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova [Images] and Japan's Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

The tenth-seeded American sisters captured their eighth Grand Slam doubles title in the process, having also won the Australian Open in 2001 and 2003