Ivanovic makes final in annoying fashion

PARIS -- If official statistics were tallied for fist pumps and self-exhortations during Grand Slam matches, Ana Ivanovic might well have established a record while winning her French Open semifinal.

Perhaps Ivanovic did not raise a clenched hand and let out a yelp after each of the 96 points she earned. It sure did seem that way to the woman she beat 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 on Thursday, Jelena Jankovic, who mocked the gesture at least twice, drawing laughs from fans.

There was plenty at stake, and nerves clearly were raw.

The winner was assured of replacing Maria Sharapova at No. 1 in the rankings, in addition to earning a berth in Saturday's championship match against 13th-seeded Dinara Safina. The younger sister of two-time major champion Marat Safin followed up her twin escape-from-match-point-down, three-set upsets of Sharapova and No. 7 Elena Dementieva with a straightforward 6-3, 6-2 victory over No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach her first Grand Slam final.

"I won in two sets," Safina said with a smile. "That's strange for me."

The men's semifinals today feature No. 1 Roger Federer vs. unseeded Gael Monfils, and No. 2 Rafael Nadal vs. No. 3 Novak Djokovic.

The No. 2-seeded Ivanovic and No. 3 Jankovic produced a seesaw struggle filled with stretches of alternately brilliant and bad play by two women who are both from Serbia, but hardly best friends.

"The match was really emotional," said Ivanovic, twice a finalist at majors but never a champion.

Jankovic led 3-0 at the start. Ivanovic, though, won 16 of 18 points to end the first set, part of a six-game spurt. Then Jankovic used a seven-game run to claim the second set and a 2-0 lead in the third. And rising to the occasion, Ivanovic took the final three games.

"I let it slip away," acknowledged the 23-year-old Jankovic, who was asked what she would do Thursday night and replied: "I will have some dinner and maybe get drunk."

As for all of her fist pumps and shouts, Ivanovic explained: "It was a way to relieve ... pressure, emotions I was feeling, and it worked well for me today. I didn't think about it. It just came natural."

Twice in the second set, Jankovic turned her back to Ivanovic and mimicked her uppercuts.

"For me, it's really funny the way she does that, and there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, each of us, we have our own way to, how to say, pump ourselves up. The way she does -- I just imitated it," said Jankovic, now 0-4 in Grand Slam semifinals.

"I saw her doing that, so that's why I did it," Jankovic said. "The crowd enjoyed it, for some reason."

Ivanovic finished with a 50-16 edge in winners, but that doesn't indicate just how many terrific baseline exchanges there were, filled with well-angled shots and on-the-run retrieving. On points that lasted at least 10 strokes, Ivanovic won 20, and Jankovic won 19.

Ivanovic made her Grand Slam final debut last year at the French Open and managed to win only three games against the now-retired Justine Henin, another player linked to that sponsor.

Ivanovic was only slightly better in the Australian Open final in January, when she won eight games in a straight-set loss to Sharapova.

"I really hope I can step up this time," Ivanovic said.

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