Jelena Jankovic was the first to reserve a spot in her first career Grand Slam final, after winning to Olympic Gold medalist Elena Dementieva in straight sets, 64 64.
"As you could see, I was fighting out there," said Jankovic, who misfired 22 times but would rarely give any ground on the most important points of the match. "I never give up. I'm there until the last point, trying my best. This is really what has helped propel me through this tournament and now into the final."
"Mentally I'm a lot stronger now; I really believe in myself," Jankovic said. "It's about time for me to make that step forward, break that barrier and go a long way. I want to win a Grand Slam. This is why I came here."
"She was playing very safely, which was smart especially because of the windy conditions today; I was just trying to go for winners and couldn't make it," Dementieva said. "I feel like this was a good run. Maybe I felt a little bit tired today and couldn't play my best. Against her you have to work really hard on every single point. With other players, two or three balls might be enough; but with he
r you have to be ready for six, seven... or even more."Serena Williams, the other finalist and champion her in 1999 and 2002, defeated Dinara Safina, who had high hopes of winning, in straight sets, 63 62.
"She was playing so well this summer; she beat me in Berlin and I was not very happy about that, and felt that I could play better," Williams said. "It was kind of hard to do today with the conditions, but I wanted to just go up against the best player this summer, and I'm very happy to have made it through."
"I could see she was a little bit uncomfortable in the beginning of the match," said Safina, who won the first two games of the match before Williams gathered steam. "She also had some wind problems. Maybe she was not feeling 100%. But she was there and she was fighting with me. I was fighting with everything except her. I can learn from her how to handle these situations."
"She loves to play here at the Open, but so do I - I love being here, I love the atmosphere," Jankovic said about Serena. "It's going to be an interesting match. She's in great form and doing really well the last couple of months. She's the strongest player on the Tour, together with her sister. If you want to win when they're in really good form, you have to be at the top of your level, go for every shot and run a lot. It will be difficult, but it's doable."
"I don't know too many people on the Tour that can hang in there as much as she can," Williams said of Jankovic. "She's playing well, and she's just going for glory here. It's definitely going to be a tough match."
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