October 13, 2008	Monday	Shawwal 13, 1429

MOSCOW, Oct 12: World No 1 Jelena Jankovic overcame a dreadful start to power past holder Elena Dementieva 0-6, 6-1, 6-0 in the Kremlin Cup semi-finals on Saturday.

The top seed will face Vera Zvonareva, seeded seventh, in the final after the Russian upset second-seeded compatriot Dinara Safina 6-2, 7-6 in the second semi-final.

Despite the defeat, Safina, 22, will move up a spot to a career-high No 2 in the rankings when the new list is released on Monday.

Seventh seed Zvonareva said it would be a special occasion to play in her first Kremlin Cup final on home soil.

Dementieva, seeded third, blew Jankovic off the court in the first set but the Serb returned the favour by taking 12 of the last 13 games to clinch the see-saw encounter that lasted one hour 45 minutes.

The Safin family will still be represented at the Olympic sports complex after seventh seed Marat Safin reached the men’s final without hitting a ball when his semi-final opponent, German Mischa Zverev, withdrew with illness.

The big Russian, Dinara’s older brother, will face unseeded compatriot Igor Kunitsyn, gunning for his first title in almost four years.

The former world number one has not tasted success since winning the Australian Open in January, 2005.

The 71st-ranked Kunitsyn reached his first ATP final with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over 35-year-old Frenchman Fabrice Santoro.

Saturday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding0:

Men’s singles:

Semi-finals: Igor Kunitsyn (Russia) bt Fabrice Santoro (France) 6-4, 6-3; 7-Marat Safin (Russia) bt Mischa Zverev (Germany) – walkover

Women’s singles:

Semi-finals: 7-Vera Zvonareva (Russia) bt 2-Dinara Safina (Russia) 6-2, 7-6 (7-5); 1-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) bt 3-Elena Dementieva (Russia) 0-6, 6-1, 6-0.

VIENNA OPEN

VIENNA: French eighth seed Gael Monfils will be the strong favourite to win his second ATP title when he takes on German qualifier Philipp Petzschner in the Vienna Open final.

Monfils, 22, came through a tight semi-final encounter against Petzschner’s compatriot Philipp Kohlschreiber on Saturday before eventually winning 6-4, 5-7, 7-6.

Petzschner, the world No 125 who downed Swiss top seed Stanislas Wawrinka in the first round, continued his impressive week with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Spanish world No 45 Feliciano Lopez.

Monfils, a former junior world No 1 now ranked 28th, will contest the sixth ATP final of his career, having won only one of his previous five — the 2005 title in Sopot.—Reuters