Thursday, 3 April, 2008

Jelena Jankovic has gone deep into every tournament played this season, but has yet to reach a final.

The fourth-seeded Serbian took another step toward changing that at the Miami Open on Wednesday with a quarter-final win over number 10 seed Elena Dementieva, who was trailing 6-1 3-1 when she retired with an apparent shoulder injury.

"I felt good out there, even though I've been sick," Jankovic said. "I'm really dictating the points, constructing the points and I'm happy with the way I'm moving."

This is the 23-year-old Jankovic's best performance in six appearances at this hardcourt event, as she had never gone beyond the third round.

The WTA Tour leader with 72 match wins last season, including four titles, Jankovic has now won four of six meetings with Dementieva.

The runner-up to Serena Williams in 2002, Dementieva is 23-8 in eight appearances here.

Jankovic's awaits the winner of Wednesday's other quarter-final between number 13 seed Dinara Safina and 19th-seeded Vera Zvonareva.

Safina moved into the last eight with a straight-sets victory over 32nd-seeded American Lindsay Davenport, who shook up the draw on Sunday by upsetting world number two Ana Ivanovic.

Safina owns a 5-2 lead in the series with Zvonareva but lost their most recent encounter earlier this year at Doha.

Williams, the defending champion, and Svetlana Kuznetsova each won on Tuesday to advance to the semi-finals in the top of the draw.

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