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Paris - Serbian fourth seed Jelena Jankovic reached her third French Open semi-final on Wednesday with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova in a mistake-plagued quarter-final clash.
Jankovic, who also made the last four in 2007 and 2008, will face either top seed Serena Williams or Samantha Stosur of Australia for a place in the final after a last-eight clash which saw 10 breaks of serve and 42 unforced errors.
The 22-year-old Shvedova, the world 36, had stunned Jankovic in the second round of the US Open last year and even in her two defeats to the Serbian, she had gone down fighting, stretching her opponent to three sets.
She was quickly ahead on Wednesday with a break in the opening game on Court Suzanne Lenglen which, for the first time in a week, was bathed in bright sunshine as bright as Jankovic's yellow dress.
However, the fourth seed settled into a steady rhythm and broke back for 3-3 before wrapping up the first set after 41 minutes in the 12th game.
The lanky Shvedova, standing at a slender 1.80m and who had never previously got beyond the third round of a Grand Slam, then exchanged breaks with Jankovic in the opening four games of the second set as errors piled up on both sides.
After a lengthy fifth game, the 25-year-old Serbian held serve to nip ahead 3-2, but the Kazakh refused to yield and took the next two games with her third break of the set secured by a deep, pinpoint forehand.
Again Shvedova was unable to capitalise and handed back the break in the eighth game when she missed a simple overhead, performing an embarrassing air shot instead, much to Jankovic's stunned, open-mouthed amusement.
It was typical of the 91-minute affair that Jankovic clinched victory when her Russian-born opponent served up a fourth double fault.
Results (x denotes seeding):
Women - Quarter Finals
Samantha Stosur (AUS x7) bt Serena Williams (USA x1) 6-2, 6-7 (2/7), 8-6
Jelena Jankovic (SRB x4) bt Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) 7-5, 6-4
