Jankovic in semis after injury forces holder Petrova out

STUTTGART, Germany, Oct 5 (Reuters) Third seed Jelena Jankovic was handed a semi-final place at the Stuttgart Grand Prix when holder Nadia Petrova was forced out by injury today.

Petrova, seeded seven, won a first-set tiebreak 7-5 and the contest was starting to shape up when Serb Jankovic broke serve early in the second.

But the Russian had to have her left thigh heavily strapped after going 3-0 down in the second and was eventually forced to call it a day when trailing 5-1.

Organisers said the problem was a recurrence of a hip injury.

Jankovic next faces world number one Justine Henin or Elena Dementieva, who meet later on centre court.

Unseeded Tatiana Golovin of France was the first player through to the semis. She beat Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko 6-3 6-4 with minimal fuss to book a meeting with Serena Williams or Svetlana Kuznetsova.

REUTERS PDT RAI2319