Dementieva into semis despite wobble

By Sonia Oxley

LONDON (Reuters) - Fifth seed Elena Dementieva recovered from a mid-match meltdown to beat fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 6-1 6-7 6-3 on Tuesday and reach her first Wimbledon semi-final.

Dementieva was a set and 5-1 up after a one-sided encounter that Petrova barely seemed to be taking part in other than to produce a steady stream of forehand errors.

With the finishing post within touching distance and serving for the match, Dementieva threw the 21st seed an undeserved lifeline by double-faulting to hand Petrova her first break.

Another break by Petrova followed and what should have been an easy win suddenly turned into a more intriguing encounter.

Dementieva, the highest remaining women's seed in the draw, held two match points in the second-set tiebreak but could not convert them, enabling Petrova to force a decider.

It was a situation all too familiar for Dementieva, who was knocked out of the French Open quarter-finals by Dinara Safina after squandering a match point in the second set. She said she could not stop thinking about how things had slipped away from her that day.

"I was so close to finishing in two sets and I don't know what happened," she said. "I suddenly started to think about the French Open quarter-finals and it was difficult (to get that out of my head). It was so exhausting."

FOOT FAULT

Petrova, wearing strapping on her right knee, said her concentration had been thrown in the fourth game of the first set when she was called for a foot fault for marginally stepping the wrong side of the centre line.

"After losing that, I gave her a lead of 4-1, so it was difficult to catch up already in the second set," Petrova told a news conference.

She added that her performance had also been affected by the late finish of her mixed doubles match the previous evening.

"I also felt a little bit tired from last night because I finished playing mixed at 9pm. It was not enough time to recover."

Petrova seemed unable to build on what should have been a big confidence boost after clawing her way back into the match and instead started producing the type of unforced errors that had riddled her play in the first dozen games.

The 26-year-old Dementieva stormed to a 4-0 lead in the third set and finally wrapped up the match with a scorching forehand crosscourt winner to set up a last-four encounter with champion Venus Williams.

"She's the defending champion, it's all pressure on her," Dementieva said, looking ahead to her next match. "I really have nothing to lose, you know."

(Editing by Clare Lovell)