Ana Ivanovic will meet Dinara Safina in the French Open final after a thrilling victory over Jelena Jankovic.
Safina awaits after Jankovic fails to upset form book
Ana Ivanovic will meet Dinara Safina in the French Open final after a thrilling victory over Jelena Jankovic.
Ivanovic - who will take over from Maria Sharapova as world number one following her victory - kept up her strong record against Jankovic with a narrow 6-4 3-6 6-4 success.
Jankovic had lost seven of the previous eight meetings between the two young Serbs, including the only previous meeting on clay and a semi-final at Indian Wells earlier this year.
She made a promising start with an early break of serve for a 2-0 lead, but Ivanovic soon hit back and broke again in the ninth game to settle the set.
Comeback
Jankovic came back strongly to win the second set and force a decider and she appeared to be in the ascendancy when she moved a service break ahead at 3-2 in the final set.
However, as her nerves began the grow Ivanovic found great rhythm with her powerful forehand and began to dominate the key points.
After retrieving the break of serve Ivanovic moved ahead with a confident service game before recovering from 30-0 down as Jankovic served to stay in the match.
Ivanovic won four consecutive points, the last of them with a ruthless forehand on her first match point to punish a tentative second serve.
The 20-year-old will now face Safina in Saturday's showpiece match, one year on from her collapse against Justine Henin in her first Grand Slam final.
"It was a very tough match - there were lots of ups and downs," Ivanovic said.
"I was just so happy to stay strong in the end and win the match, but it was a very tough one.
"(From 3-1 up in the second set), I think she just started playing really good tennis.
"Maybe I started to be a bit too passive but she's a very good player and if you give her chances, she is going to take them."
