Henin--10, Jankovic, 0

I was able to watch only parts of 4th seed Jelena Jankovic's Stuttgart quarterfinal match today against wild card Justine Henin, but what I saw was really good. Many of us have been waiting for these two to meet again, since Jankovic had never defeated Henin in Henin's first WTA career. Jankovic won the first set today, but Henin won the second in a tiebreak, then eventually won the match. Both players received very appreciative applause from the crowd, but that probably didn't do too much for Jankovic, who is now 0-10 against the Belgian. Henin's 3-6, 7-6, 6-3 victory puts her into the semifinals against Shahar Peer.

Peer upset 2nd seed Dinara Safina 6-3, 6-2. This upset isn't too surprising, given that Safina has been away for quite a while, and Peer can be very tough.

7th seed and wild card Sam Stosur defeated Li Na 6-3, 6-3. Stosur once again walked away with excellent service stats, though Li's weren't too shabby, either. Stosur will play the surprise semifinalist, Anna Lapushchenkova.

Lapushchenkova, a qualifier who has now played six matches, defeated Lucie Safarova 7-6 (1), 1-6, 6-1. Lapushchenkova double-faulted 13 times, often because she tried to go for too much on her second serve. On the other hand (literally), she smacked a number of stunning backhand winners. Lapushchenkova hit the ball really flat, posting 28 winners to 36 unforced errors. When she won, she displayed almost no affect, even after the handshake. During her interview (with one of my favorite interviewers, though his name escapes me), she was sheepish and anxious. This is new territory for her, obviously. Her coach, however, was elated, and even gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Lapushchenkova had chances to win the first set much sooner, but she did not do so, probably because of lack of experience. She even dropped a set point, but she didn't let that stop her from totally dominating Safarova in the tiebreak.

In the doubles quarterfinals, 2nd seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik (I really like that they're playing together) defeated Sarah Borwell and Raquel Kops-Jones, and 3rd seeds Cara Black and Shahar Peer defeated Alexandra Dulgheru and Agnes Szavay.