Ivanovic Upsets Sharapova At French Open

PARIS (AP) _ Ana Ivanovic advanced to her first Grand Slam final, taking advantage of a sloppy showing by Maria Sharapova to win 6-2, 6-1 in the French Open semifinals Thursday. <br/><br/>The 19-year-old

Thursday, June 7th 2007, 7:35 am

By: News On 6

PARIS (AP) _ Ana Ivanovic advanced to her first Grand Slam final, taking advantage of a sloppy showing by Maria Sharapova to win 6-2, 6-1 in the French Open semifinals Thursday.

The 19-year-old Serb will play either two-time defending champion Justine Henin or fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic.

``I was knowing I have to stay aggressive,'' Ivanovic said. ``I play a great game. I lose no shots. I was thinking the game would be much closer.''

Two-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova's drubbing was reminiscent of her 6-1, 6-2 loss to Serena Williams in the Australian Open final in January.

The Russian was looking to reach her third consecutive final in a major after winning last year's U.S. Open. But Sharapova's performance was riddled with unforced errors and five double-faults, and she lasted little more than an hour on center court.

Playing in her first French Open semifinal, Sharapova complained last week that matches on clay made her feel like ``a cow on ice,'' and she struggled to chase down Ivanovic's pinpoint strokes.

Sharapova lost six straight games to trail 5-0 in the second set, before holding for 5-1.

Ivanovic closed out the win with her fifth ace, then raised her arms in triumph and grinned as she trotted to the net.

Sharapova had 25 unforced errors to 11 for Ivanovic and hit only four baseline winners.

Ivanovic started quickly, holding her opening serve and then broke Sharapova immediately with a strong forehand flick down the line.

Sharapova double-faulted to go 5-1 down, broke back for 5-2, but lost the first set in 32 minutes when she double-faulted for the fourth time.

Ivanovic broke Sharapova in the second game of the second set. In the next game, Ivanovic was briefly in trouble at 0-30 down before rallying to win the next four points to move 3-0 up.

That was as close as Ivanovic got to feeling any pressure.

Sharapova wasted several chances to hold serve in the fourth game, and was broken again when she hit a forehand into the net after a brief rally.

Henin leads Jankovic 5-0 head-to-head, including a win in the semifinals of last year's U.S. Open. The Belgian is seeking to become the first woman to win three consecutive French Open titles since Monica Seles in 1990-92.

On Wednesday, Novak Djokovic advanced to the men's semifinals by beating Igor Andreev 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, setting up a match against two-time defending champion Rafael Nadal.

Nadal impressed friend and mentor Carlos Moya by winning 6-4, 6-3, 6-0.

``There are just a few players who cannot just beat him, but even get a set from him,'' Moya said. ``Federer's one of them, and Djokovic can be one of them.

``Djokovic is a guy that is improving a lot. He's very complete player, and he's playing very well on any kind of surface, and he has all the shots. So I think he has a chance to _ I don't know if he can win, but he has the game to play well and to give Nadal some trouble.''

Win or lose, Djokovic has helped Serbia make a splash at Roland Garros. The nation had three Grand Slam semifinalists for the first time, with Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic reaching the women's final four.

Aside from nine-time Grand Slam champion Monica Seles, Serbia touts a modest tennis tradition.

``Everything what happened in the last couple of months or year or two is just phenomenal for such a small country,'' Djokovic said. ``We didn't have big tennis players, especially in men's tennis. And now tennis got really popular in our country, maybe No. 1 right now.''

Djokovic, Jankovic and Ivanovic were born in Belgrade but left the war-ravaged region to train elsewhere.