Pumped-up Ivanovic tops Jankovic to reach final, No. 1 spot

"I saw her doing that, so that's why I did it," Jankovic said. "The crowd enjoyed it, for some reason."

Jankovic was limited by a right forearm injury that bothered her so much earlier in the tournament that she flew home to Belgrade to visit her doctor. She began the semifinal with a bandage wrapped around the arm, but took it off while trailing in the second set.

"I had problems hitting the ball as hard as I could," Jankovic said, "and she was the more powerful one."

Ivanovic finished with a 50-16 edge in winners, but that doesn't indicate just how many terrific baseline exchanges there were, filled with well-angled shots and on-the-run retrieving. On points that lasted at least 10 strokes, Ivanovic won 20, and Jankovic won 19.

"She loves to defend and to run, so you just have to take these kind of risks - and believe," Ivanovic said. "Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't."

At the very end, it worked. After double-faulting to hand Jankovic a 4-3 lead in the final set, Ivanovic turned things around by hitting a forehand winner followed by a backhand passing winner for break points. She converted with a forehand right on a line to get to 4-4.

Ivanovic held to 5-4, then used her best shot -- her forehand -- to great effect. Her four points in the last game were earned with a forehand return, a drop shot, an inside-out forehand, and a forehand return.

"She kind of woke up," said Ivanovic's coach, Sven Groeneveld.

Each time Ivanovic won a point, Groeneveld was celebrating right along with her, rising from his seat in the player guest box to applaud loudly and shout encouragement. He won't be back in that spot Saturday: Rather than working directly for Ivanovic, he is employed by her apparel sponsor - which she happens to share with Safina.

It was the same situation a year ago, when Ivanovic made her Grand Slam final debut at the French Open and managed to win only three games against the now-retired Justine Henin, another player linked to that sponsor.

Ivanovic was only slightly better in the Australian Open final in January, when she won eight games in a straight-set loss to Sharapova.

"I really hope I can step up this time," Ivanovic said.

Safina's lack of big-match experience certainly didn't hurt against Kuznetsova, who entered the day 3-0 in major semifinals. Neither played particularly well -- 46 of 122 points ended with unforced errors. There also were seven breaks of serve in the first 11 games.

"I was too tight," Kuznetsova said, "and she was too confident."

Like her brother -- who won the 2000 U.S. Open and 2005 Australian Open -- Safina has been known to show flashes of temper, but it was Kuznetsova who smacked one ball into the 12th row behind the opposite baseline after one missed forehand. Even when she double-faulted for the fifth time, Safina simply stood still at the baseline -- no scream, no spike of her racket.

As she tried to serve out the match while leading by a set and 5-2 in the second -- the precise margin by which she trailed in the fourth round and quarterfinals -- Safina fell behind love-30. She would later say that she thought to herself then: "Don't be passive, like the other ones did with me."

Simple as that, Safina won the next four points to end the match. She raised her arms over her head and looked into the stands at her mom, who flashed a thumbs-up sign.