MOSCOW, Oct 11: World No 1 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 No 7 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 No 1 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.

The in-form Safina came back from 5-2 down in the second set to seize her fourth consecutive victory over former US 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.

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

Friday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s singles:

Quarter-finals: 7-Marat Safin (Russia) bt 1-Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-4; Igor Kunitsyn (Russia) bt Jeremy Chardy (France) 6-4, 6-2; Mischa Zverev (Germany) bt Viktor Troicki (Serbia) 6-4, 3-6, 7-5; Fabrice Santoro (France) bt 4-Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) 6-3, 2-0 – Mathieu retired.

Women’s singles:

Quarter-finals: 2-Dinara Safina (Russia) bt 5-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) 6-4, 7-5; 1-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) bt Flavia Pennetta (Italy) 7-6 (8-6), 6-3; 7-Vera Zvonareva (Russia) bt Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) 7-5, 6-4; 3-Elena Dementieva (Russia) bt Nadia Petrova (Russia) 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6).

UPSET WIN FOR MONFILS

VIENNA: Eighth seed Gael Monfils upset No 2 seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-3, 7-6 on Friday to advance to the semi-finals of the Vienna Open.

The 22-year-old Frenchman put in a gutsy performance, saving seven out of eight break points before dominating the tiebreak 7-2.

Monfils, a former junior world No 1, is through to his fourth semi-final of the year but is yet to reach a final in 2008.

Standing in his way in the semi-final will be German world No 32 Philipp Kohlschreiber who cruised past fifth seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-2, 6-3.

The unseeded Kohlschreiber broke twice in each set without being taken to a single break point on his own serve.

The 24-year-old is chasing the third ATP title of his career, having won his second in Auckland at the start of this year.

German qualifier Philipp Petzschner and unseeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez will meet in the other semi-final.

Petzschner, the world No 125 who stunned top seed and world No 10 Stanislas Wawrinka in the first round, booked his first appearance in an ATP semi-final with a 6-4, 6-2 win over former world No 1 Carlos Moya.

Lopez, who won his only previous ATP singles title at the Vienna Open four years ago, fought back from a set down to see off Austrian Juergen Melzer 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Results:

Quarter-finals: Philipp Petzschner (Germany) bt Carlos Moya (Spain) 6-4, 6-2; Feliciano Lopez (Spain) bt Juergen Melzer (Austria) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; 8-Gael Monfils (France) bt 2-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) 6-3, 7-6 (7-2); Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) bt 5-Fernando Verdasco (Spain) 6-2, 6-3.

—Reuters