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LOS ANGELES, July 25: Top seed Serena Williams downed fourth seed Elena Dementieva 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) in a semifinal showdown of the past two Grand Slam runner-ups on Saturday at the J.P. Morgan Chase Open hardcourt tournament.
Williams fired seven aces and rose to 3-0 over her Russian rival to book a date in Sunday's final opposite fellow American Lindsay Davenport, who advanced 7-5, 2-0 when Venus Williams quit their match with an injured right wrist.
Serena Williams has beaten Davenport in all four of their meetings over the past three years. But third seed Davenport, who ousted Venus Williams last week in a three-set thriller final at Stanford, will be in the final for the eighth time in nine appearances as she seeks a fourth Los Angeles crown.
Saturday's results (prefix number denotes seeding):
SEMIFINALS: 1-Serena Williams (US) beat 4-Elena Dementieva (Russia) 6-3, 7-6 (7-2); 3-Lindsay Davenport (US) beat 2-Venus Williams (US) 7-5, 2-0 - retired.
RODDICK IN FINAL
INDIANAPOLIS: Defending champion Andy Roddick saved three match points and rallied to beat Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 1-6, 7-6 (12-10), 7-6 (7-3) in the semifinals of the RCA Championship on Saturday.
Second-ranked Roddick, the top seed here, escaped the two-hour and 20-minute marathon to book a finals date against Germany's Nicolas Kiefer, who beat France's Gregory Carraz 6-2, 6-2 in the other semifinal.
It will be Roddick's third consecutive final, having won the Queen's Club title and lost the Wimbledon final to Swiss world number one Roger Federer. Roddick holds a 1-0 career advantage over Kiefer, beating the German in straight sets at the 2002 Cincinnati ATP Masters Series tournament.
SATURDAY'S RESULTS:
SEMIFINALS: 1-Andy Roddick (US) beat Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) 1-6, 7-6 (12-10), 7-6 (7-3); Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) beat Gregory Carraz (France) 6-2, 6-2
MOYA FOILED
UMAG: Top seed Spaniard Carlos Moya's bid for a fifth Croatian Open title came to a disappointing end on Saturday when he was beaten in the semifinals by the fourth-seeded Italian Filippo Volandri 6-3, 6-2.
In the second semifinal, sixth-seeded Guillermo Canas of Argentina enjoyed an easy 6-2, 6-2 victory against Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
SATURDAY'S RESULTS:
SEMIFINALS: 4-Filippo Volandri (Italy) beat 1-Carlos Moya (Spain) 6-3, 6-2; 6-Guillermo Canas (Argentina) beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spain) 6-2, 6-2. -AFP
