Wells, partnering Elena Vesnina. In May, at the clay-court event in Berlin, Safina defeated world No. 1 Justine Henin in the third round. Safina went on to defeat Serena Williams for the first time in the quarterfinals, ending Williams's 17-match winning streak. She then defeated Elena Dementieva in the final to win the first Tier I title of her career. Safina retrospectively called the tournament "the key to her tennis life". As the 13th seed at the French Open, Safina defeated new world No. 1 Maria Sharapova, having saved a match point. In the quarterfinals, Safina defeated Dementieva, after saving match points again. Then, in her first Grand Slam semifinal, Safina defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova, before losing to Ana Ivanovic in the final. Her results at this tournament caused her ranking to rise to world No. 9. On grass, Safina lost in the final of 's-Hertogenbosch to Tamarine Tanasugarn. At Wimbledon, Safina lost in the third round to Israeli Shahar Pe'er. At Los Angeles in July, Safina defeated top-seeded Jelena Janković in the semifinals before claiming her second title of the year by defeating Flavia Pennetta in the final. The following week, Safina won the Tier I Montreal, defeating Dominika Cibulková in the final. This marked the first time in her career that she had won titles at back-to-back tournaments, and it moved her up to world No. 6, her highest career ranking at the time. She also won the US Open Series as a result of this victory. Representing Russia at the Beijing Olympics, Safina defeated world No. 1 Jelena Janković in the quarterfinals in three sets, making her the first player in the history of the WTA Tour to defeat three different reigning World No. 1 players in the same year. In the semifinals, she defeated Li Na in straight sets. In the gold medal match, Safina lost to Dementieva in three sets while serving 23 double faults. She went into the US Open as one of five women who could have taken the world No. 1 ranking, depending on their results in this tournament. However, she lost in the semifinals to the eventual champion Serena Williams. After this tournament, her ranking rose to a career high of world No. 5. Safina won her third Tier I title of the year and fourth title overall in Tokyo in September, defeating Kuznetsova in the final. This win moved her ranking