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 Ivanovic advanced to the French Open final for the second year in a row, sweeping the final three games to beat Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 Thursday. Ivanovic's opponent Saturday will be No. 13-seeded Dinara Safina, who will be trying to join older brother Marat Safin as a Grand Slam champion.
Ivanovic also seeks her first major title. But at 20, she's already assured of supplanting Maria Sharapova atop the rankings next week.
She said she was unaware the semifinal victory earned her the No. 1 spot until she was told after the match.
"Being No. 1 is a dream come true for me," Ivanovic said. "It was a big surprise because I was so focused on the tournament."
That's still the case. She seeks a breakthrough in Grand Slam finals after finishing as the runner-up to Justine Henin at the 2007 French Open and to Sharapova at the 2008 Australian Open.
Nerves sabotaged Ivanovic's chances a year ago at Roland Garros, and she won only three games in a dismal performance.
"I feel like a different player coming into this French Open," Ivanovic said. "A lot of experience I gained from that final and the final in Australia, so I really hope I can step up this time and make one more step."
In the men's semifinals Friday, No. 1-seeded Roger Federer was to play unseeded Frenchman Gael Monfils, and No. 3 Novak Djokovic was to face No. 2 Rafael Nadal, the three-time defending champion.
Safina finds herself in uncharted territory. The Russian's best previous Grand Slam showings were quarterfinal finishes in 2006 at Roland Garros and the U.S. Open, and she knows she's lucky to be in the final after fending off a match point in consecutive rounds.
Her semifinal victory was more straightforward. Dominating with an aggressive approach from the baseline, Safina beat an error-prone Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-2.
"God kept me in this tournament," Safina said. "So I said, `OK, now I'm not going to be passive anymore. I have to be aggressive, because there will be no third chance.'"
No woman has won a Grand Slam title after saving match point in two matches, but there's family history suggesting a good omen for Safina. Her brother fended off a match point to beat Federer in the semifinals of the 2005 Australian Open, then won the title three nights later.
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Safin also won the U.S. Open in 2000. He has been text-messaging congratulations to his sister after each match, and he'll monitor the final from England, where he's preparing for Wimbledon.
Safina has lost two of her three matches against Ivanovic, but they last met in 2006.
"It's going to be a tough match," Ivanovic said. "She has done a great run. She's showing some great strengths."
Safina, two years older than Ivanovic but unaccustomed to playing on such a big occasion, said she'll try not to dwell on what's at stake.
"I have to do the things that I know to do, and try to avoid thinking as much as I can about, `This is the final,'" she said. "It's still the same court and still the same ball. It's just how I take it in my mind."
She encountered little resistance in the semifinal from Kuznetsova, who looked surprisingly nervous for a player who won the 2004 U.S. Open. By the second set she had become so frustrated with her erratic shots she smacked a ball into the 12th row at the far end of the stadium.
"Pretty horrible," Kuznetsova said. "I felt like I could not give her fight because I was fighting first against myself."
Jankovic was equally dejected following her roller-coaster defeat. She squandered leads of 4-2 in the first set and 3-1 in the third. She would have climbed to No. 1 next week had she won; instead she fell to 0-4 in major semifinals.
No wonder she was glum. When asked about her plans for Thursday night, she said: "I will have some dinner and maybe get drunk."
[Associated Press; By STEVEN WINE]
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