Safina ends Jankovic's quest for No. 1; Pennetta to be faced in final

On Saturday night, Jelena Jankovic battled against Dinara Safina to move one step closer to the No. 1 ranking, but Safina didn't let that happen, as she completely demolished Jankovic in her semifinal match, and the Russian enters the final against Flavia Pennetta, to battle it out for the title on Sunday.

Jankovic, currently seeded 2nd, needed to win the title here at Los Angeles to rise to No. 1 for the first time in her career, but the Serb would hav to wait for next week to have another chance, as she wasn't good enough to beat the 22-year-old Russian, who was the finalist at this year's Roland Garros.

"She played very well throughout the match and was the better player today," a gracious Jankovic said. "I played a bad tie-break and in the second set I just couldn't go anymore. My legs were shaking. I'm not in the best shape yet. It was a little hard for me but I tried my best. But she served great and did what she had to do to win the match. Some days you do not play your best. The most important thing for me is to be healthy and to continue to work on my game."

Missing the opportunity of becoming the 18th player since the start of computer rankings to become No. 1 i the world, Jankovic thought she was good enough to do it, but it didn't happen, so she would have to wait for next week, or maybe some other time in the future.

"Hopefully my time will come. It's not the end of the world. Just to play in this tournament was very exciting. I had an injury and was supposed to be out for a long time. I just have to continue to work hard."

Before the two Top 10 players battled it out for a final berth, two surprise semifinalists were also playing eachother to reserve a spot in the final. Flavia Pennetta faced wildcard Bethanie Mattek, and in the end it was the Italian who prevailed, despite rallying from break points down early in the second and third set, in straight sets 36 62 75. Pennetta had lost a match to Mattek recently but claimed her revenge.

Pennetta moved into her 13th career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles final, but first at the Tier II level or higher (her first 12 all came at the Tier III or Tier IV level). But despite being 0-3 lifetime against the No.9-ranked Safina, her previous success against the Top 10 should give her some confidence: she has had four Top 10 wins before, one over Nadia Petrova, one over Justine Henin and two over Venus Williams (including one earlier this year at Roland Garros).