Dementieva wins see-saw battle

Nadia Petrova's attempt at an Andy Murray-style fightback finally fell short in an extraordinary match with Russian compatriot Elena Dementieva on Centre Court.

Petrova, who looked mentally shot and quite down and out at 1-6, 1-5, fought back from two match points down to pull the second set out of the fire in a tie-break but she crumbled again in the final set.

After three splendidly competitive opening games between the pair, calamity struck for Petrova when she was penalised for a rare foot fault for crossing the centre line, rather than the baseline. She stared at the line-judge angrily and TV replays showed it to be a close, and possibly harsh, call.

But whatever the justice of the issue, the 21st-seed Petrova was then guilty of letting the call completely wreck her equilibrium. She chuntered away unhappily and proceeded in the same game to serve up two double-faults and then a dismal forehand plonked into the net.

From then on mental disintegration seemed to set in as the fifth seed Dementieva just worked on peppering Petrova's dodgy forehand and her fellow Muscovite obliged with a series of wayward shots.

After running away with the first set in 36 minutes there appeared no sign of a Petrova recovery as Dementieva surged into a 5-1 lead in the second.

Yet Petrova then took advantage of Dementieva's growing tightness as the winning line appeared. Fighting back to take the game to a tie-break, Petrova saved twomatch points before winning the breaker 8-6. But Dementieva battled back to win the final set 6-3 and and will now face a semi-final clash with Venus Williams.