Sat Jun 28 10:59:40 2008

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Jankovic, Dementieva, Williams advance at Wimbledon

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Wimbledon, England (Sports Network) - Jelena Jankovic survived while defending champion Venus Williams and Russian Elena Dementieva all advanced in third-round action at Wimbledon on Saturday.

Serbia's Jankovic, the second seed, was handed a loss in the first set by 17- year-old Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, but bounced back to take the next two sets and advance to the fourth round with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win.

In the first set, Jankovic slipped and injured her left knee and later had to take a medical timeout and have the knee strapped. She was in pain throughout the match, but will now have the next 48 hours off before having to face Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn, who rallied from a first-set loss to down New Zealand's Marina Erakovic 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Jankovic is the highest-seed left on the women's side after top-seeded Ana Ivanovic was bounced on Friday by Zheng Jie of China while No. 3 Maria Sharapova was knocked out on Thursday by Alla Kudryavtsea.

Williams, the seventh seed, joined her sister in the fourth round as she easily advanced past Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, 6-1, 7-5 in just one hour, 12 minutes. Williams finished with 33 winners, as well as 10 unforced errors and six double faults.

The 28-year old Williams is looking for her fifth title here and will face Russia's Alisa Kleybanova in the fourth round. Kleybanova had an easy time with Japan's Ai Sugiyama, 6-4, 6-4.

Dementieva, the fifth seed, had trouble in her first set against Argentina's Gisela Dulko, but eventually took the set and won the next in a 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 match that took two hours, six minutes to finish.