The Hindu : Sport : Impressive Ivanovic meets Henin

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Friday, Jun 08, 2007
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Impressive Ivanovic meets Henin

PARIS: Ana Ivanovic advanced to her first Grand Slam final by beating Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-1 in the French Open semifinals here on Thursday.

Defending champion and top seed Justine Henin spoiled the Serb party when she defeated Jelena Jankovic 6-2, 6-2 in the other semifinal.

The Belgian, who stayed on track for her third straight French Open title, improved to 6-0 against Jankovic. However, it was the first time the Serb had lost in straight sets to Henin — who also won here in 2003.

The Belgian will become the first woman to win three consecutive titles at Roland Garros since Monica Seles (1990-92) if she wins Saturday's final.

Jankovic rallied midway through the second set, and Henin had to save a break point before moving 5-2 up. Jankovic double-faulted to go 15-40 down on her serve and give Henin two match points.

She clinched victory in her first attempt when Jankovic's forehand sailed long. Henin clenched her fist and blew a kiss to the crowd.

In the first semifinal, Ivanovic neutralised Sharapova's power by keeping her on the run. ``She is an aggressive player and likes to dominate,'' Ivanovic said. ``I knew she was not a great mover on clay.''

Sharapova's defeat was reminiscent of her 6-1, 6-2 loss to Serena Williams in the Australian Open final in January. The Russian was looking to reach her third consecutive final in a major after winning last year's U.S. Open.

However, her performance was riddled with unforced errors and five double-faults in a match that lasted just 65 minutes.

Playing in her first French Open semifinal, Sharapova struggled to chase down Ivanovic's accurate shots. She trailed 5-0 in the second set, before holding for 5-1. Ivanovic closed out the match with her fifth ace.

Sharapova had 25 unforced errors to 11 for Ivanovic and hit only four baseline winners.

Bright start

Ivanovic started well, holding her opening serve and then breaking Sharapova immediately with a strong forehand flick down the line. The Russian double-faulted to go down 1-5, broke back for 2-5, but lost the first set in 32 minutes when she double-faulted for the fourth time. Ivanovic broke Sharapova in the second game of the second set. In the next game, Ivanovic was briefly in trouble at 0-30 before rallying to win the next four points to move 3-0 up.

That was as close as Ivanovic got to being under pressure. Sharapova wasted several chances to hold serve in the fourth game, and was broken again when she hit a forehand into the net after a brief rally.

Going down tamely

In the men's doubles semifinals, Mahesh Bhupathi and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic lost 6-3, 6-4 to the sixth-seeded pair of Mark Knowles (Bahamas) and Daniel Nestor (Canada). It was a lacklustre show by the Indo-Czech combination which went down in 79 minutes. — AP

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