Top seed Serena Williams and eighth seed Jelena Jankovic advanced to the final of the China Open in Beijing, eliminating Agnieszka Radwanska and Petra Kvitova respectively.
Serena Williams took out seed No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska in their third meeting this year, with 31 winners and 21 unforced errors, in one hour and 12 minutes, 6-2 6-2. The American broke Radwanska’s serve four times, twice in each set, losing just 14 points on her own serve. Williams is now 7-0 against Radwanska. After the match Radwanska said that Serena was just playing too good and on the question what would she do if she faced the American in Istanbul, the Pole smiled and said that she would try to play with her left hand, maybe she would manage to beat her that way.
In the other semifinal, Jelena Jankovic eliminated seed No.9 Petra Kvitova 6-7(7) 6-1 6-1 in just over two hours. In the first set Kvitova was leading 3-1, but then Jankovic managed to score four straight games for 5-3 and went on to lead 6-5, when the Czech rushed back and ended the set in one hour and three minutes in the tiebreak 6-7(7). However, Jankovic needed just one hour to storm through the next two sets. The Serb said that she was extremely happy to finally manage to beat Kvitova in their third career meeting.
The China Open final will be the eleventh match-up of Williams and Jankovic. The last time they faced each other was this year in Charleston when Williams won 3-6 6-0 6-2. Their head-to-head record 6-4 for Williams. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
