Seventh seed Jelena Jankovic and unseeded Maria Sharapova will play each other in the Toray Pan Pacific Open final.

In the semifinals, Serbia’s Jankovic benefited from Li Na’s 40 errors to defeat the Chinese No.15 seed 6-4 6-3, and for the second time in a row beat a player against whom she had a negative career record, having ended a losing streak against Marion Bartoli in the previous round.

Sharapova scored her fourth victory over Agnieszka Radwanska, overcoming the eleventh seed 6-3 2-6 6-4. The Russian rallied from 0-2 in the third set to prevail.

Jankovic will be looking for her third title of the season (she won both her previous finals in 2009), while the 2005 Toray Pan Pacific Open champion Sharapova will try to end her title drought that extends back to April 2008.

Sharapova has a 4-1 head-to-head record against Jankovic, and 3-0 on hardcourts. (photo: Jean-Sebastien Marceau)

Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Maria Sharapova of Russia remain on course to face each other in the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

The seventh-seeded Jankovic, the highest-ranked player left in the draw, ended a losing streak against No.14 seed Marion Bartoli of France, defeating her 6-4 6-3 to reach the semifinals. Bartoli had beaten Jankovic in their last four meetings, twice in 2007 and twice this year.

The Serb’s next opponent will be No.15 seed Li Na of China, who won a tight match against Belorussian Victoria Azarenka, seeded eighth, 7-6(7) 4-6 7-6(4).

Maria Sharapova rallied from a set down in both sets against Czech Iveta Benesova, to win 6-4 7-5 and advance to the last four. Next up for Sharapova will be No.11 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who rounded out the semis with a 6-3 6-1 victory over Magdalena Rybarikova. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Jelena Jankovic and Victoria Azarenka were the only Top 8 seeds not to have fallen in the first two rounds of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and on Wednesday they went through to the quarterfinals. Maria Sharapova also advanced to the last eight.

The seventh-seeded Jankovic won her third-round match when Elena Vesnina retired with a left thigh injury while trailing 6-1 3-0. The eighth-seeded Azarenka beat Lucie Safarova 7-5 6-4 in the last match of the day.

The 2005 Toray Pan Pacific Open champion Sharapova once again played a three-setter against fellow Russian Alisa Kleybanova, fighting back from a first-set loss to win 2-6 6-2 6-2. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Now we can stop counting… Elena Dementieva of Russia and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark have quickly joined a bunch of top players in their early Pan Pacific Open exit.

Third seed Elena Dementieva was beaten 6-2 6-7(3) 6-1 by Kateryna Bondarenko in the second round, and was soon after accompanied by fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, who retired due to a viral infection, while trailing Aleksandra Wozniak 0-5 in the first set.

Dementieva had never in their four previous encounters lost a set to Kateryna Bondarenko, and she blamed bad line calls and fatigue for the outcome of today's match.

"There were way too many bad calls from the chair umpire today," said the Russian. "I'm surprised they don't have a challenge system at such a big event."

During the Pan Pacific Open here on Women’s Tennis Blog we just mentioned the numerous upsets. This time, we should give some well-deserved attention to Maria Sharapova, who almost double-bageled Samantha Stosur to enter the last 16. Stosur saved two match points at 0-5 in the second set, and lost 6-0 6-1.

Note: Just one Top 10 player, Serena Williams, didn’t enter the $2 million Tokyo event, and only two of the nine that entered the tournament have reached the third round – Jelena Jankovic and Victoria Azarenka. (source: Reuters, photo courtesy of Women Who Serve)

Top seed Dinara Safina, second seed Venus Williams and fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova all suffered upsets in the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open. The fact that so many of them got upset at the same time kind of makes their individual losses milder, and early losers Ana Ivanovic and Flavia Pennetta look better.

World No.1 and defending champion Dinara Safina fell to 18-year-old Taiwanese qualifier Chang Kai-Chen, ranked 132nd, 7-6(5) 4-6 7-5. Safina had an opportunity to close out the match in the third set, but double-faulted, dropped her serve, and went on to lose.

Venus Williams lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6(6) 7-5, while Svetlana Kuznetsova, who just like Safina and Williams had a bye in the first round, lost 7-5 4-6 6-3 to Germany's Andrea Petkovic. (source: BBC, photo: Jean-Sebastien Marceau)