Jankovic to meet Dementieva, Davydenko ousted

MOSCOW (Reuters) - World number one Jelena Jankovic will face holder Elena Dementieva in the Kremlin Cup semi-finals after both players overcame unseeded opponents on Friday.

The second semi will be an all-Russian affair between second seed Dinara Safina and number seven Vera Zvonareva.

In the men's draw, seventh seed Marat Safin outlasted his Russian Davis Cup team mate Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 4-6 6-4 in their quarter-final, foiling the top seed's bid for a third consecutive Kremlin Cup crown.

Former world number one Safin will now take on 98th-ranked German Mischa Zverev while unseeded Russian Igor Kunitsyn faces French veteran Fabrice Santoro in the other semi-final.

Safin's sister Safina edged fifth-seeded compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4 7-5 while Zvonareva beat teenage Slovak Dominika Cibulkova, who had upset world number five Ana Ivanovic in the previous round 7-5 6-4.

Dementieva was the first player to reach the last four, eliminating fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 6-4 4-6 7-6.

The third seed won the opening set and led 4-1 in the second and third before allowing her compatriot to rally each time. However, the Olympic champion held her nerve to clinch the tiebreak 8-6 after a match lasting nearly three hours.

Jankovic, making her Moscow debut, also had to use all her experience to beat Italian Flavia Pennetta 7-6 6-3.

Pennetta led 3-1 in the second set before the Serb, who replaced Serena Williams at the top of the WTA rankings on Monday, reeled off five successive games.

TIRED JANKOVIC

"I'm feeling a bit tired as I've been playing a lot recently but I've got two more matches left here so I'll try my best," said Jankovic, who won titles in Stuttgart and Beijing in the past two weeks.

The in-form Safina came back from 5-2 down in the second set to seize her fourth consecutive victory over former U.S. Open champion Kuznetsova.

Zverev, 21, reached his first ATP semi-final with a thrilling 6-4 3-6 7-5 win over Serb Viktor Troicki.

The Moscow-born Zverev, who moved to Germany at the age of four, saved two match points as he battled back from 5-1 down in the decider.

"I've lost matches after throwing away a 5-1 lead but I've never won from 5-1 down in the third set so this is a first for me," he said.

Santoro went through when fellow Frenchman, fourth seed and 2002 winner Paul-Henri Mathieu, retired because of illness while trailing 6-3 2-0.

(Editing by Tony Jimenez and Ken Ferris)