Reigning champion Jelena Jankovic suffered a quarter-final upset at the Stuttgart's WTA tournament on Friday as she was toppled by unseeded Italian Flavia Pennetta 2-6, 6-4 and 6-4. Pennetta only finished her second-round game against Nadia Petrova just before midnight, but rallied from losing the first set to take her semifinal place.
"The level of my game dropped in the second set and I started to allow my opponent to play her own game," said Jankovic.
Third-seed Jankovic took the first set 6-2, but Pennetta started using her forehand to take the second 6-4, and stormed into a 2-0 lead in the third set.
Jankovic fought back in style to go 3-2 ahead, before the Italian made her baseline game count to take the third and the match.
"I am really happy to win this match today," said the Italian after nearly two hours, "I was nervous at the start, but from the beginning of the second set I pushed a bit more and used my forehand."
Pennetta will next play world number one Dinara Safina who beat Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska while Russia's Elena Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova will face each other in the other last four games.