Andy Roddick was forced to dig deep to beat his unfancied opponent in his China Open semifinal Saturday as women's top seed Jelena Jankovic continued her march towards the title. The big-serving American battled to a 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 6-1 win against 137-ranked Bjorn Phau while Jankovic staved off a spirited fight-back from Vera Zvonareva on the women's side. Germany's Phau - ranked 129 places below Roddick - came into this tournament without a single win on the ATP tour this season but frustrated the second seed with a battling performance. Roddick hurled his racket to the ground in frustration after losing the second set tie-break but broke Phau's serve three times in the decider. In the final, Roddick will meet Israel's Dudi Sela, who reached his first ATP final with a 6-3, 6-3 win over seventh seed and Wimbledon semifinalist Rainer Schuettler. Sela, who earlier dumped world number five David Ferrer and sixth seed Tommy Robredo from the Beijing tournament, said reaching an ATP final had been a “dream” since breaking into the top 100 of the world rankings. In the women's draw, Jankovic, last year's losing finalist here, beat Zvonareva 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. In the late evening match Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova secured the final spot against Jankovic beating China's Zheng Jie 7-6(3), 7-5. Djokovic meets Tsonga In Bangkok, top seed Novak Djokovic booked his place in the final of the $576,000 Thailand Open with a stylish 7-5, 6-1 win over third seed Tomas Berdych. Djokovic's opponent will be second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who surged to a commanding 6-0, 6-3 victory over fourth seed Gael Monfils. Djokovic had fortune on his side when he clinched a close 51-minute first set with a powerful backhand that crashed off the top of the net and landed way out of the Czech's reach. Playing in the Thailand Open semis for a second successive year, Berdych fought hard and was unlucky to lose the second set by such a large margin, but the Serb served well and seized on the Czech's errors. Sunday's final against Tsonga will be a repeat of this year's Australian Open final in which Djokovic beat the giant-killing Frenchman in four sets. Kirilenko-Stosur final In South Korea, top-seeded Maria Kirilenko reached the Korea Open final Saturday after rallying for a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win over No. 3 Kaia Kanepi of Estonia. Kirilenko will meet Samantha Stosur in Sunday's final after the Australian eased past Jill Craybas of the United States 6-0, 6-1.
