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Sharapova will play Jankovic in Pan Pacific final

Crowd favorite Maria Sharapova overcame a second-set loss of form to beat Agnieszka Radwanska yesterday and set up a final against Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic in the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament.

The Russian held her composure to storm back from 0-2 down in the final set to complete a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 victory over the Pole.

Earlier in the day Jankovic overcame an injury scare to beat Li Na of China 6-4, 6-3.

“It’s going to be difficult,” Sharapova said of her meeting with Jankovic in the final.

Sharapova, ranked 25th in the world after her shoulder injury lay-off, suffered a mid-match slump as she overhit her power-packed strokes and lost all of her service games in the second set.

After Radwanska squared the match at one-set all, the Russian then found herself 0-2 down in the final set but persisted in attacking Radwanska’s second serve to earn return winners on a break point in the fourth and eighth games.

Despite dropping two match points in the ninth, Sharapova finished off the match with another return winner on her fifth match point.

Jankovic needed treatment on her right arm at the beginning of the fourth game at 1-2 down.

But the Serbian showed no ill-effects to hit two consecutive winners from the baseline and break back on a Li backhand error which went wide at 15-40 to tie the score 2-2.

Jankovic added another break in the eighth game and, although she needed to save one break point in the following game, calmly served out for the match watching Li’s backhand service return go long.



■MALAYSIAN OPEN

AFP, KUALA LUMPUR

Nikolay Davydenko brushed aside a challenge from Gael Monfils yesterday to reach the semi-finals of the Malaysian Open, setting up a clash with French Open finalist Robin Soderling.

Davydenko, the top seed beat the Frenchman 6-3, 6-3, with Monfils dropping his serve four times during the match.

Third seed Soderling continued his easy passage with a third consecutive victory in straight sets as he crushed Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych 6-2, 6-2.

In the other quarter-finals Fernando Gonzalez beat Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-4 while Fernando Verdasco beat Richard Gasquet 7-5, 6-4.



■THAILAND OPEN

REUTERS, BANGKOK

Second seed Gilles Simon booked his place in the semi-finals of the Thailand Open after a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over hard-hitting Russian Evgeny Korolev yesterday.

Simon will meet Austrian Juergen Melzer in the semis after he overpowered Andreas Beck in a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 win.
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