Jankovic beats Stosur 6-2, 6-4 to reach Indian Wells final; Roddick reaches semis

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Jankovic, Roddick move on at Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Jelena Jankovic defeated Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-4 Friday to reach the women’s final of the BNP Paribas Open.

The sixth-seeded Serb will try to win her first title in seven months on Sunday. Jankovic will face either No. 2 seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark or fifth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, who met in an evening semifinal.

Andy Roddick advanced to the men’s semifinals with a 6-3, 7-5 win over 18th-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain, who lost to the American for the 11th consecutive time. Roddick will take on either Andy Murray or Robin Soderling, who played later Friday.

Defending champion Rafael Nadal plays 20th-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia in the other men’s semifinal Saturday.

Jankovic is having her best results of the year. She’s dropped just one set in five matches at Indian Wells. The world’s former top-ranked player had little trouble dispatching Stosur, who will enter the top 10 for the first time when the WTA Tour rankings are released Monday.

Stosur hadn’t dropped a set in her four previous matches.

“It was a great week,” she said, “but I definitely didn’t play anywhere close to as well as what I can.”

Jankovic last won a title in August at Cincinnati.

She and Stosur were tied 2-all in the first set, with Stosur serving at 40-love. She wound up getting broken, one of five straight games she lost to drop the set.

“All the frustration and anger built up and I let that carry on too long,” the Aussie said. “Before you know it, you’re a step behind the ball and totally getting dictated to.”

That’s exactly what Jankovic wanted. She broke Stosur to go up 3-2 in the second set, and then won three of the next five games to close out the 1½-hour match on a day when temperatures soared to almost 90 degrees.

“Samantha has an unbelievable serve, one of the best serves in the women’s game, and I was able to return a lot of her first serves,” Jankovic said. “I think she felt uncomfortable because she really relies on that shot. That’s her best weapon.”