Pennetta stuns Jankovic again for Stuttgart semis berth

Flavia Pennetta of Italy did it again to Jelena Jankovic, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, on Friday as the Serbian title holder crashed out of the Porsche Grand Prix quarter-finals.

The 14th-ranked Pennetta clinched the comeback upset win in 1 hour 58 minutes against an erratic third seed Jankovic.

Pennetta, 27, lost the first five matches against Jankovic but then beat her the last time they met, in Zurich last autumn, less than two weeks after Jankovic had claimed the world number one spot with the Stuttgart title in October 2008.

Olympic champion Elena Dementieva overcame stiff resistance from Marion Bartoli to reach the semi-finals for the third time, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

In Saturday's semis, Dementieva meets fifth-seeded fellow-Russian Svetlana Kuzentsova, who took just 70 minutes to beat unseeded Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-3, 6-2.

The last quarter-finals later Friday brought together current world number one Dinara Safina of Russia and Polish eight seed Agnieszka Radwanska. The winner meets Pennetta.

Jankovic was hoping to regain her 2008 form in Stuttgart, which is now held in April on clay instead of October on hard court.

She was in full command against Pennetta in the first set, but the Italian, who had ousted six seed Nadia Petrova in Thursday just before midnight on Thursday, roared back.

The Italian squared the sets with a ninth-game break and then got the vital advantage for 4-3 in the final set. She served out the match in the 10th game at love, winning when Jankovic hit a groundstroke wide.

'I am very happy about the match. I was nervous at the start but I started pushing more in the beginning of the second set,' said Pennetta.

The second-seeded Olympic champion Dementieva squandered a one-break lead twice in the second set and almost threw away a 4-0 advantage in the third before beating Bartoli in 2:17 hours.

The 13th-ranked French Bartoli crawled back to 4-3 in the deciding set before Dementieva held for 5-3. The Russian then wrapped up her fifth win in seven meetings with Bartoli on her fourth match point with a backhand winner.

'This was my best match so far, it was a good fight from the first ball to the end,' said Dementieva, whose earlier Stuttgart semis were in 2002 and 2005.

Kuznetsova is in the Stuttgart semis for the fourth time (2004, 2006, 2007, 2009) and holds a slim 5-4 lead in the series with Dementieva.

After being stretched to long three-setters in the opening rounds Kuznetsova made short work of Dulko to take a 3-2 lead in their series. A break in the second game was enough to take the first set and Kuznetsova never looked back after a break for 2-1 in the second.

'I enjoyed my game today, I was successful with my shots,' said Kuznetsova.