INDIAN WELLS, Ca., March 17 (Reuters) - Fourth seed Elena Dementieva upset
top seed Justine Henin-Hardenne 2-6 7-5 7-5 to reach the Pacific Life Open final
on Friday.
Dementieva will face third seed Maria Sharapova, who beat Martina Hingis 6-3
6-3, in the final.
On the men's side, American James Blake overwhelmed Igor Andreev of Russia
6-1 6-4 in the quarter-finals.
Blake will face the winner of the match between number two Rafael Nadal and
25th seed Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.
Henin came into the match with a 7-1 winning record over Dementieva and
cruised through the first set and a half before the wheels came off with the
score at 2-5.
A notoriously slow starter Dementieva suddenly found her game, running down
ball after ball and rarely making errors.
She broke Henin twice to get back to 5-5 and then wore her bewildered
opponent down to take the set.
Henin had her right knee wrapped in between sets and regained momentum in the
third set.
Dementieva held a match point with Henin serving at 4-5 but the Belgian came
up with an overhead winner.
With Henin serving at 5-6, however, her legs simply gave out and she
committed two backhand errors to lose the two-hour, 51-minute contest.
"I was dominating and then I lost my concentration," said Henin. "I helped
her come back into the match. Maybe I thought the match was over too soon and
she turned the match completely around. She's a great fighter."
STERLING PERFORMANCE
Sharapova gave a sterling performance against Hingis, wearing her opponent
down in long rallies, attacking the Swiss player's second serves and bullying
her from the forehand side.