Serena Williams, Jelena Jankovic reach U.S. Open final

Williams won an uneven second semifinal 6-3, 6-2, over Safina and became the first American woman in a U.S. Open final since that final in 2002 between herself and her sister, Venus Williams.

Having defeated Venus in a taut, thrilling quarterfinal on Wednesday night, Serena willplay Serbia's Jelena Jankovic, the No. 2 player in the world and a 6-4, 6-4 winner over the suddenly jittery Olympic champion, Elena Dementieva.

It marked Jankovic's first trip to a Grand Slam final upon her fifth try at a semifinal, and her post-match tears reflected both her elation and the halting path she had taken. She will play Serena on Saturday night, weather permitting, and the winner will become No. 1 in the world.

For Williams, a return to the No. 1 spot would be unusual for its statement of longevity, given she last held the throne in the middle of 2003 during the waning days of her two-year domination of the sport. It also would mean a brisk ascent all the way from the No. 7 spot she held as Wimbledon began in late June.

To get from No. 7 to the cusp of No. 1, she reached the Wimbledon final, reached the quarterfinals of the Olympics (while winning the doubles with her sister), inched her way to No. 3 by the beginning of the U.S. Open, and fought through Safina by winning 11 of the last 13 games after trailing 3-1 in the first set.

Safina certainly helped out, faring worse in wind that twice blew away the players' service tosses. The 22-year-old Russian, who won the first Grand Slam semifinal of her career over Svetlana Kuznetsova at the French Open, looked frozen in this one, making errors garish enough to seem like gaffes, having shots spray off the frame of her racket and plunking one of her serves straight down to the concrete before it bounced up into the net.

She amassed 41 unforced errors in the match to 21 for Williams, who noted the weather, elected to go for fewer winners and somehow made only six unforced errors in the second set.

When she cracked a service winner up the middle on her first match point, Williams let out a shriek, apologized to Safina for accidentally hitting her with a ball during the second set and looked thrilled as her sister Venus looked on from the friends' box.

In winning a chance at her first Grand Slam title since the 2007 Australian Open against a player, Jankovic, who defeated her in the 2008 Australian Open, Serena Williams could end a six-Grand Slam dearth she considers quite excessive.