Dementieva survives condense to reach semi-finals

Elena Dementieva reached her first Wimbledon semi-final on Tuesday with a 6-1, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3 victory over Nadia Petrova where burning temperatures sent both Russians into meltdown.

But it was a hard-earned victory for Dementieva who had led by a set and 5-1 and threw away two match points against Dinara Safina in the French Open quarter-finals.

Trailing 2-1 in the first set, the 26-year-old was called for a borderline foot-fault which, in turn, sparked two back-to-back double faults which handed the first break to Dementieva.

The fifth seed spooled off the next six games on her way to taking the first set and creating a 2-0 moderate in the second before Petrova stopped.

Petrova, the 21st seed, sent down her 19th unforced error to hand the 2004 French Open and US Open runner-up another break in the fifth game. But a 5-1 lead drifted away as Petrova reeled off five successive games to take the set into a tiebreak.

Dementieva, who let slip a one-set, 5-2 lead, as well as wasteful a match point in her French Open quarter-final defeat to Dinara Safina, and then misspent two match points before Petrova jumped to level the tie.

Dementieva stormed into a 4-0 lead in the decider and held her nerve after dropping serve again in the fifth game to eventually enclose up victory after two and a half hours on court.

The 26-year-old fifth seed, the highest ranked player left, will meet defending champion Venus Williams for a place in the final.