Defending champion Elena Dementieva secured a hard-fought win over Nadia Petrova on Friday to advance to the semifinals of the Kremlin Cup.
The Beijing Olympic gold medalist's opponent in the last four will be Jelena Jankovic, who was tested for a set-and-a-half of her quarterfinal against Flavia Pennetta before striding through to the penultimate stage of a tournament for the eleventh time this season.
The other semifinal will be an all-Russian affair, with Dinara Safina taking on Vera Zvonareva after both subdued tricky rivals.
Although Petrova moved ahead 4-3 with a break in the seventh game of the first set, No.3 seed Dementieva responded by taking three consecutive games to capture the opener. The Olympic gold medalist appeared to be cruising to victory as she established a 4-1 lead in the second set but Petrova, runner-up in Moscow two years ago, rallied to win five games on the trot and send the match to a decider.
Once again Dementieva surged to a 4-1 lead, but unseeded Petrova leveled at 4-4 and the match moved inexorably towards a tie-break. But although Petrova drew first blood with a mini-break, Dementieva, who was also taken to a final set tie-break by Katarina Srebotnik in the second round, held her nerve to take the match on her third opportunity, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6.
"She changed tactics in the second set and started to play more aggressively," said the 26-year-old, who also beat Petrova in the quarters at Wimbledon. "It was not an easy match. There were many missed chances for me."
Dementieva will need to be firing on all cylinders against world No.1 Jankovic, who beat the Russian in the semis at Flushing Meadows early last month and holds a 5-3 edge in their rivalry.
The top-seeded Serb was lucky to escape with a 7-6, 6-3 win over Pennetta. The Italian got an early break in the first set, and although she would lose the advantage - and the ensuing tie-break - repeated the feat in the second. But her service game at 3-2 assumed the proportions of a Chekhovian drama - going to deuce no fewer than 18 times - and when Jankovic finally secured the break back, all resistance crumbled.
Like Pennetta, No.5 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was left to rue lost chances after her 6-4, 7-5 defeat at the hands of second- seeded Safina. A break against the Kuznetsova serve at 4-4 was enough to hand the Beijing silver medalist the first set, but Kuznetsova brushed aside the disappointment to break her younger rival in the first game of the second. Kuznetsova served for the second set at 5-3 but Safina broke back, held to love for 5-5, broke her unsettled opponent again for 6-5 and served it out with ease in the next game.
No.7 seed Zvonareva was also fortunate to advance in straight sets against Slovak teen Dominika Cibulkova, conqueror of Ana Ivanovic in the second round. Cibulkova held a set point on the Olympic bronze medal winner's serve at 5-4 in the first set, but was unable to capitalize and was duly broken by the Russian.
With the first set in the bag - and a first Moscow semifinal in her sights after four quarterfinal losses - Zvonareva broke twice more to race to a 3-0 lead in the second. Cibulkova fought valiantly, retrieving one break and coming within a point of clawing back the other, but Zvonareva kept her nose in front for a7-5, 6-4 win.
Source: Xinhua
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