Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina assured Russia of at least two medals from the women's singles when she joined her compatriots Elena Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals after defeating world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 in the Olympic tennis event on Friday night.
Bolstered by her victory against Jankovic three weeks ago at Los Angeles, Safina made a confident start and broke twice in the first set as her opponent struggled to find any rhythm.
Jankovic hit back, finally breaking Safina's serve to lead 2-1 in the second set, having failed to convert five earlier break points in the match. A very tense end to the set saw Jankovic lose a 30-0 lead when serving for the match at 5-4, save two break points, then miss a set point of her own before double faulting to lose her advantage.
In the next game, Safina saved two break points but hit three double faults to fall behind again and Jankovic served out to level the match.
At 1-2 in the third set, Jankovic produced a string of errors to lose a 40-0 lead and double faulted on break point to hand the advantage back to Safina. Safina clung to her lead and set up a match point on Jankovic's serve at 5-3, which Jankovic saved when the Eagle's eyes backed her claim that her forehand down the line, that had been called out, was in.
Safina hit a forehand too deep on her first match point but made no mistake on the second. She smashed away a weak lob to secure a place in the last four.
Safina will next take on local heroine Li Na, who has already defeated two top 10 players in the Olympic tennis event and will have huge home support. She is the only non-Russian through to the semifinals of the women's singles.
Jankovic will lose her No. 1 ranking to compatriot Ana Ivanovic, whom she replaced in the top spot at the beginning of the week, when the new rankings are published Monday.
(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2008)