Jankovic advances to Moscow semis; Safin takes out reigning champ

MOSCOW -- Top-ranked Jelena Jankovic beat Flavia Pennetta of Italy 7-6 (6), 6-3 Friday to advance to the semifinals of the Kremlin Cup, and Marat Safin upset defending men's champion Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Jankovic will face Olympic champion Elena Dementieva in the next round, while Dinara Safina will play Vera Zvonareva in the other semifinal match.

"Today she (Jankovic) is the strongest player in the world," Dementieva said. "She's playing terrific tennis and has just won back-to-back titles on different surfaces ... It won't be an easy match."

Dementieva beat Nadia Petrova 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6), while Zvonareva defeated Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 7-5, 6-4 and Safina ousted Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 7-5,

Jankovic took the top ranking from Serena Williams on Monday after winning back-to-back titles at the China Open and the Porsche Grand Prix in Germany. Jankovic will retain her top ranking next week regardless of this weekend's results because Williams, the runner-up in Moscow last year, pulled out with an injury.

After trading serves twice in the first set, Jankovic broke Pennetta for a 6-5 lead but the Italian broke back to force a tiebreaker. Pennetta was up 3-0, then trailed 5-3, but leveled to 6-6 before returning wide in the next two points.

The 18th-ranked Italian, up 3-2 after breaking Jankovic in the opening game of the second set, saved five break points in the sixth game before Jankovic finally broke her on the 12th deuce in a 30-point game to level 3-3.

"It was the decisive moment of the match," Jankovic said. "If I have lost the game, the match could have gone in her direction. It was very important for me to win that game and come back. I was able to stay strong and win that game."

Petrova went up 4-3 in the all-Russian match with a break in the seventh game of the first set, but Dementieva won three consecutive games to take the set. Dementieva was leading 4-1 in the second set but Petrova came back and won five consecutive games to level the match at one set each.

In the third, Dementieva again took a 4-1 lead but Petrova rallied back to 4-4 and then both players held their serves to force the tiebreaker, which Dementieva won on her third match point.

"It was not an easy match," Dementieva said. "There were many missed chances for me today."

Safin, in a rematch of the 2006 final when Davydenko won his second title in Moscow, made a decisive break in the fifth game of the third set. He closed the match on his second match point when Davydenko netted a forehand return.

It will be only the second semifinal appearance for the former top-ranked Russian, who lost to Roger Federer in the Wimbledon semifinals.