Henin Beats Jankovic To Reach Warsaw Final

Justine Henin withstood a strong challenge from Serbian Jelena Jankovic to win 7-5 2-6 6-4 and reach her fourth final of the year.

Justine Henin withstood a strong challenge from Serbian Jelena Jankovic to win 7-5 2-6 6-4 and reach her fourth final of the year at the Warsaw Cup on Saturday.

The top-seeded Belgian took two hours 36-minutes to see off Jankovic and will next face third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia or Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko, who play later on Saturday.

It was Henin's 18th victory this year, with her only defeats coming in the semi-finals of the Paris indoor event and the Miami final.

Henin, winner in Dubai and Doha, could have claimed victory more easily after sweeping to a 4-0 lead in the first set and then holding points to lead 2-0 in the second.

Instead, fourth seed Jankovic held, broke to lead 2-1 and went on to secure the set with a further break for 5-2.

Henin again let her advantage slip in the deciding set. The Belgian led 3-1, but Jankovic broke her in the next game, and when Henin held a break point to lead 5-3 she dumped a weak return into the net.

As the set seemed destined for a tiebreak, Jankovic made two forehand errors to drop her serve at 5-4.