/ Sean Calvert / 06 September 2008 /

On a windy day, Sean Calvert sees Elena Jankovic battle through to her first grand slam final .

The ladies semi finals took centre stage on Ashe with Olympic champ Elena Dementieva taking on Jelena Jankovic first up.

Dementieva, looking in confident mood, was a break ahead early and held on until 4-3, but Jankovic, resplendent in a pale yellow number, pulled it back and took a 5-4 lead.

Jankovic looked like she may have injured herself performing a Gael Monfils-like splits manoeuvre attempting to retrieve a less than authoritative overhead from her opponent, which ended in vain, and indeed pain, for the Serbian as she strived to serve it out.

Her mood improved considerably moments later though when facing her first set point, Dementieva could only end the next rally with an unforced error and the set went to Jankovic.

This was good news for me, as I had layed the Russian at [1.62] prior to the match and was now in a very comfortable position at the start of the second set, which Jankovic opened with a love game.

The Olympic champion, sporting a black and white number, struggled to hold her first service game, but in game three Jankovic took another wince inducing tumble and lost her serve to go 2-1 behind.

This is WTA though and more unforced errors from the Russian - she had made 28 so far - handed the break back to Jankovic and we were back on serve.

The USA Network cameraman was switching to Dementieva's mother in the stands with almost as much regularity as the player herself was looking to Dementieva Senior for inspiration.

It was not required however as Jankovic did the splits again reaching for a forehand and moments later Dementieva was a break up once more.

In an unusual twist of events there was another break of serve in the very next game as Jankovic levelled at 3-3 and there had now been seven breaks in the first sixteen games. Admittedly the wind was a tad strong on Ashe, but even so it wasn't great stuff.

Jankovic bucked the trend in the next however and Dementieva joined the service hold party before Jankovic threw in a love game to advance to within one of her first grand slam final.

The service holds were always unlikely to remain however and Dementieva completed a poor night's work by throwing in a double fault and finally blasting a forehand long to hand the match to Jankovic and hand me a tidy profit.

Looking at the prices for the other semi-final, between Dinara Safina and Serena Williams, I thought Williams looked a touch short at around [1.34] so replete with profit from the Jankovic match, I had a tentative investment on Safina with a view to laying off later.

Both I and Safina enjoyed a perfect start as the Russian broke Williams in the first game and used her Safin-like serve to hold off break points for a 2-0 lead.

Indeed, Safina, scrambled to break point again in the very next game, but got a taste of her own medicine as Williams blazed three big serves past her to chalk up her first game of the evening.

Others soon followed as Williams eased her way back into the set at 3-2 and we saw the first signs of that Safin blood at 30-30 in game six when Dinara's racquet took a beating after an unforced error.

The wind was getting increasingly worse on Ashe and Safina struggled with her ball toss and faced break points, but managed to hold on to level at 3-3.

Unforced errors were outnumbering winners by far due to the conditions, but Serena just managed to hold her serve in the next despite producing two double faults in the game.

Williams, who opted for the all-red number with matching headband for this one, didn't need to do a great deal to break again in game eight, as Safina had started to lose patience with the wind and all the family histrionics were on display by this time.

The players changed ends after that one and it did appear that the one end was tougher to play from than the other, as Williams struggled when serving for the set at 5-3.

She went 15-40 down, but Safina was unable to take advantage and Williams finally served it out to take the set.

As the second set was yet to begin, the US cameraman switched - as is their wont - to 'famous' faces in the crowd.

I did recognise Chris Evert's current partner and golf choker extraordinaire Greg Norman lurking in one of the boxes, but I had no idea who Serena's boyfriend - the attractively named 'Common' - is. Any ideas?

I'm assuming he's in the music business. Whoever he is I've never heard of him, but his presence spurred on Williams, who broke her opponent in the first game of set number two.

The lead didn't last long however, as Safina broke back to love, but it wasn't to be for Safina as Williams broke back straight away amidst a torrent of Russian screeching and racquet tossing.

Even John McEnroe on commentary was beginning to get bored with the wind dictating the play, but you have to be able to cope with the conditions you're faced with.

Safina really couldn't and a rasping forehand from Williams put the seal on yet another break of the number six seed's serve and gave the American a 4-1 lead and she let out a scream of delight at the shot.

Williams held for 5-1 and to her credit, Safina also held serve - her first hold in five service games - to take us to 5-2, but despite playing her best tennis for a while, Safina blasted a forehand wide to set up match point for Williams.

The former champ wasted no time in securing her place in the final by thumping a big serve down the middle to deflate the hopes of Russia once more.

Attention turns back to the men's event on Saturday and weather permitting we should be seeing Andy Murray take on Rafael Nadal for a place in the final. Can he do it? Having watched both players up close this week I would suggest that this is Murray's best chance yet, but I can't see him taking three sets off Nadal.

Djokovic v Federer should be an absolute classic and at [2.16] the Serbian is surely worth a bet.

The night match is of course the women's final and Williams is put in at [1.28] favourite for this one. Bizarrely the schedulers have put the final on first at 7pm New York time and then they're hoping that people will stay on to watch Pat Cash v Mats Wilander afterwards. Surely they have that schedule the wrong way round?

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