The women's singles semifinals are set for later Friday at the U.S. Open tennis championships in New York.
First up will be second seed Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium taking on Serbian Jelena Jankovic. Jankovic had never before made it beyond the fourth round of a major tournament. She knocked off fourth seed Elena Dementieva of Russia to earn her semifinal encounter against former number-one Henin-Hardenne.
Current number-one and top seed Amelie Mauresmo of France will take on former number-one and third seed Maria Sharapova of Russia.
The men's semifinals will be played Saturday. Number one and two-time defending champion Roger Federer of Switzerland beat American James Blake in four sets Thursday night (7-6, 6-0, 6-7, 6-4) and will meet seventh-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko. The other men's semifinal has American Andy Roddick taking on Russian Mikhail Youzhny.
American veteran Martina Navratilova, 49, will play at least one more match at the U.S. Open before retiring for good. She is still alive in mixed doubles in her final competitive tournament. She and compatriot Bob Bryan beat German Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Frantisek Cermak of the Czech Republic Thursday night, 6-3, 6-4. They will play Friday night in the semifinals against fellow-Americans Meghann Shaughnessy and Justin Gimelstob.
Navratilova failed to reach the women's doubles semifinals, as she and Russian partner Nadia Petrova fell to top seeds and defending champions Lisa Raymond of the United States and Australian Samantha Stosur, 7-6, 6-3.