Jelena Jankovic recovered from an abysmal start to beat Elena Dementieva in the semi-finals of the Kremlin Cup.
Top seed beats defending champ while Zvonareva downs Safina
Jelena Jankovic recovered from an abysmal start to beat Elena Dementieva in the semi-finals of the Kremlin Cup on Saturday.
Jankovic was outplayed by Dementieva in the opening set, but the top-seeded Serbian fought back in style as she recorded a 0-6 6-1 6-0 victory over her Russian opponent.
Jankovic, who stretched her winning run to 11 matches after ousting the third seed in 77 minutes, is chasing her third title in a row.
Any thoughts of being crowned Moscow champion seemed unlikely though after the 23-year-old failed to win a point on her opponents serve in the first set while winning just five of 20 service points.
But Jankovic quickly responded, claiming six of 11 break points over the next two sets to earn the victory and advance to her sixth final of the season.
The win was Jankovic's sixth in nine career meetings against Olympic gold medallist Dementieva, who had been hoping to make her fourth appearance in the final of her hometown event.
Response
Jankovic, who took the top ranking from Serena Williams on Monday, admitted the going was tough in the opening set.
"Elena was better than me in the first set," she said.
"She really had an answer for all my shots, she was always on the ball. I just couldn't do anything - she was too good."
But the Serb felt it was the other way around in the second set: "I was thinking, what I need to do is to be better than her.
"I wanted to dominate, to be aggressive and try to win the points. I really put a lot of pressure on her to take the initiative from the first stroke."
Despite performing so impressively in the first set, Dementieva confessed she took her foot off the gas, which eventually cost her the match.
"I have a feeling that I really didn't push a lot in the second and the third sets," Dementieva said.
"And I didn't finish points at the net, which was very successful in the beginning of the match."
The Russian did pay respect to her opponent, insisting the Serb has one of the best court coverage's on the tour.
"She (Jankovic) has a great defensive game and it's almost impossible to hit a good shot from the baseline because she can cover the whole court."
Finalist
The world No. 1 will now square off against seventh seed Vera Zvonareva, who beat second seed Dinara Safina 6-2 7-6 (7-5) in their all-Russian encounter.
Zvonareva came through in straight sets to make her sixth final of the year, beating Safina for the third time this season and makes her first final on her home soil.
Safina's older brother and former world number one Marat Safin will represent the Safin family in the men's final on Sunday after his semi-final opponent, 98th-ranked German Mischa Zverev withdrew with illness, the ATP said.
