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Jankovic reaches U.S. Open final

Fri 5th, September 2008

Flushing Meadows, NY (Sports Network) - Former world No. 1 Serb Jelena Jankovic secured a berth in Saturday night's U.S. Open women's final.

The second-seeded Jankovic handled fifth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-4 in Friday's first women's semifinal match at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The two-time major runner-up Dementieva, fresh off her gold medal-winning performance in Beijing, was the 2004 U.S. Open runner-up to fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Jankovic, who was ranked No. 1 for only one week just last month, will meet fourth-seeded American Serena Williams or sixth-seeded Russian Dinara Safina in the final.

The 23-year-old Jankovic will now appear in her first-ever major final after going 0-4 in her previous Grand Slam semis, including 0-2 in such encounters this season. She was a semifinalist here two years ago.

Jankovic converted on her first match point after 1 hour, 34 minutes of tennis on Day 12 here when Dementieva sent one final forehand long of the court amid windy conditions at Ashe Stadium. A sloppy Dementieva piled six double faults and 42 unforced errors and had her weak serve broken on five occasions by Jankovic, who played some great defense to advance.

The Belgrade native Jankovic will appear in her 16th career final on the WTA Tour, going 6-9 in her previous ones, including 1-1 this year.

The 2008 U.S. Open champ will pocket at least $1.5 million, while Safina would collect $2.5 million with a championship by virtue of her U.S. Open Series win leading up to this fourth and final major of the year.