THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DOHA, Qatar -- Vera Zvonareva defeated fifth-ranked Elena Dementieva 7-6 (7), 3-6, 6-3 Saturday in an all-Russian semifinal at the WTA Tour's season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships.
Top-ranked Jelena Jankovic faced Venus Williams later Saturday.
Zvonareva, at No. 9 the lowest-ranked player in the eight-woman field, improved her record against Dementieva to 2-4. Olympic champion Dementieva beat Zvonareva the last time they played in Beijing, where Zvonareva won bronze.
Zvonareva frustrated Dementieva with solid ground strokes in the final set. She capitalized on a string of errors by Dementieva to win the last match at love.
Zvonareva recovered from a 1-4 deficit in the first set. In the tiebreaker, Dementieva rallied from 5-1 down and lost a set point before hitting a backhand wide on Zvonareva's second set point. The Russians broke each other four times in the first set.
Dementieva also had a 4-1 lead in the second set, and this time held onto it to even the match.
The tournament featured eight players divided into two groups, with the top two in each group advancing to the elimination stage.
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