Henin battles past Jankovic

Belgian star overcomes fourth seed in Germany

Justine Henin produced a stunning comeback against Jelena Jankovic in Stuttgart to close in on her first WTA title since making her return to tennis.

Belgian Henin, who made her comeback from retirement earlier this year, rallied from the brink of defeat to see off fourth-seeded Jankovic in a blistering 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 battle at the Porsche Grand Prix.

Unseeded Henin looked destined for a loss when she fell one set behind, but fought back to win the second-set tie-break before storming on from there to wrap up the decider and bring her personal record against Serbian Jankovic to 10-0.

Henin will next take on in-form Israeli Shahar Peer, who advanced to the last four after dumping out second seed Dinara Safina.

Unseeded Peer needed just over an hour to record a 6-3 6-2 victory over the Russian world number three, who continued to suffer with the back problem that had kept her out of tennis since January.

Solid

"I was playing pretty solidly today and I am glad I didn't have to go to three sets," said Peer.

Earlier, Australian seventh seed Samantha Stosur also booked a spot in the semis with a 6-3 6-3 triumph over Li Na of China.

Stosur, who will face either qualifier Anna Lapushchenkova or unseeded Lucie Safarova on Saturday, needed only an hour to secure the convincing win, which marked her 10th consecutive victory.

"It was quite a tough match and hard to get a rhythm," said Stosur, who made just seven unforced errors.

"I didn't realise I had made so few errors, so that is a good result. Any match where you go through and don't drop serve is a good day."