Justine Henin improved her record against Jelena Jankovic to 10-0, taking yet another close encounter between the two by winning their Stuttgart quarterfinal 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-3.

Seven of their ten matches have gone three sets, but this was the first since 2007 to go the distance.

“I don’t really know myself how I was able to beat Jelena today,” said Henin. “Jelena was so consistent in the first set and she put me under a lot of pressure. I was fighting hard in the second set and was very brave. I was going for my shots and eventually got back into the match.”– K.T.

Fernando Gonzalez will begin working with Darren Cahill on a part-time basis.

“I will begin to work with Australian Darren Cahill, a coach that got a lot of results with Agassi and Hewitt at their best moments and in different years,” said Gonzalez on his website. “It won’t be full time because of his obligations but I trust he will help my aggresive tennis with the best tactical moves of the Australian school.”

Cahill is a coach with the player development program at adidas, which sponsors Gonzalez. Gonzalez was previously working with Martin Rodriguez.

Dinara Safina’s comeback from a back injury ended in her second match at Stuttgart when she was beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Shahar Peer.

Safina took three sets to defeat Agnes Sazavy in her opening match, her first competitive encounter since January.

“‘Dinara is a good player but she was playing only her second match after her long break,” said Peer. “My game was very solid.”– K.T.

Samantha Stosur scores her 10th straight win on clay, defeating N Li 6-3, 6-3 in the Sttutgart quarterfinals. The French Open semifinalist is undefeated on the dirt this season, having won the WTA event in Charleston two weeks ago.

“Everything’s falling into place at the moment,” she said.–K.T.

STUTTGART, Germany (AP)—Justine Henin of Belgium stayed on course for her first title since coming out of retirement by beating Jelena Jankovic—yet again—for a place in the Porsche Grand Prix semifinals.

Henin rallied to win Friday’s match 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 and bring her record against the Serb to 10-0.

“I still don’t know how I did it,” Henin said after the match. “It was really intense.”

Henin will play Shahar Peer of Israel, who stopped Dinara Safina’s comeback from injury by beating the second-seeded Russian 6-3, 6-2.

Henin returned to the circuit in January, ending an 18-month retirement, and was runner-up in Brisbane and at the Australian Open.

Jankovic thought the Belgian was just as strong as when she retired as the reigning No. 1.

“She is playing the same, she is still one of the best on clay. You have to hold your ground, as soon as you lose concentration she takes advantage, she has so much experience,” said Jankovic.

Also a former No. 1, Jankovic won the Stuttgart tournament in 2008 and was seeded fourth this time.

“We both played a good match and maybe I was a little unlucky at the crucial times,” the Serb said. “I had a break point at 5-5 in the second and I was hoping to pounce on her serve but she hit one of her best serves of the match with her second serve.”

Henin had 44 unforced errors but also produced 43 winners, while Jankovic only had 18 winners to go with 23 unforced errors.

“She played very consistently in the first set and I was under a lot of pressure,” Henin said. “I kept fighting and I am really happy to get through.”

Peer, Henin’s semifinal opponent, is celebrating her 23rd birthday Saturday.

Safina, another former No. 1, was playing her first tournament since retiring from the Australian Open in January with a lower-back injury.

“Dinara is a good player but she hasn’t played for a while,” Peer said. “I was playing solid and I was aggressive.”

Peer made only three unforced errors in the second set as she twice broke Safina’s serve. Safina finished with 27 unforced errors, and Peer has now won the last four of her seven matches against the Russian.

Earlier, seventh-seeded Samantha Stosur also advanced to the last four with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Li Na of China to extend her winning streak on clay to 10.

Stosur, who will next face Anna Lapushchenkova of Russia, committed only seven unforced errors and never faced a break point.

“I didn’t realize I had so few errors so that’s a good result,” the Australian said. “To get 10 in a row is really good.”

Stosur, who is seeking her second title of the year after winning in Charleston, is projected to move up one place to a career-high No. 9 when the new rankings come out next week.

Lapushchenkova advanced to her first career semifinal in her first main draw appearance this year by overcoming Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (1), 1-6, 6-1.

ROME (AP)—Rafael Nadal overcame a slow start and defeated Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4, 6-1 Friday to reach the Rome Masters semifinals and stay unbeaten on clay this season.

Aiming for his fifth title at Foro Italico in six years, Nadal had trouble finding his range off Wawrinka’s powerful serve. But he finally managed to break the 26th-ranked Swiss player to close the first set, then cruised from there.

Nadal improved his record on clay this year to 8-0, having won the Monte Carlo Masters two weeks ago.

“I played well, but I was definitely playing better in Monte Carlo,” Nadal said.

Nadal’s only loss at this French Open warmup came against fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero in the opening round two years ago, when he was bothered by a foot blister.

Nadal will next play Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, who prevented an all-Spanish quartet in the semifinals by beating Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (6), 6-1.

Fernando Verdasco made another strong showing on clay with a 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4 win over Novak Djokovic. The match, featuring long baseline rallies, was played under a glaring sun and lasted 3 hours, 18 minutes. In the semifinals, Verdasco will face David Ferrer, who cruised past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 6-1.

Roger Federer and Swiss Davis Cup teammate Yves Allegro were eliminated from the doubles tournament by American pair John Isner and Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-4. Federer lost his opener in singles to Gulbis on Tuesday.

Wawrinka, the 2008 runner-up, dropped only two points in his first four service games.

“The first set was level for a long time. He was holding serve much easier than me. All the games on my serve were harder than his,” Nadal said. “But at 5-4 I started to play really well with some good drop shots.”

Nadal then began approaching the net in the second set.

“I am going to the net more,” he said. “You can go to the net more when you’re dominating the points.”

Verdasco has reached the final of his last two events—losing to Nadal in Monte Carlo and winning last week’s Barcelona Open. The first set of the Verdasco-Djokovic match went nearly 1 1/2 hours. Verdasco, seeded sixth, closed the match with an ace down the middle.

“When you face someone who always makes you play one more shot on every point it’s not easy to play a quick match,” Djokovic said. “So I knew it was going to be a long match today.”

Verdasco also beat Djokovic in the Monte Carlo semifinals, winning 6-2, 6-2. The turning point this time didn’t come until Verdasco won a marathon game on his sixth break point to lead 2-1 in the third set, running down a drop shot from Djokovic and forcing the exhausted Serb to hit into the net.

Djokovic committed 46 unforced errors to Verdasco’s 40.

“My backhand wasn’t at the level I wanted it to be at today, and I struggled a little with my serve, but I’m happy more or less with the way I played,” Djokovic said. “If there was one different thing I could’ve done I would have liked to play better on the important points.”

>>> Click here to watch Rome matches live on TennisTV.com.

Dinara Safina’s comeback from a back injury ended in her second match at Stuttgart when she was beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Shahar Peer.

Safina took three sets to defeat Agnes Sazavy in her opening match, her first competitive encounter since January.

“‘Dinara is a good player but she was playing only her second match after her long break,” said Peer. “My game was very solid.”– K.T.

FEZ, Morocco (AP)—Romanian teenager Simona Halep has reached her first WTA Tour final by beating Renata Voracova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-4 at the Grand Prix SAR.

The 18-year-old Halep pressured Voracova’s service games to win more than half of her return points even though the Czech landed 81 percent of her first serves and hit only one double-fault Friday.

Halep will next play the winner of the semifinal between Alize Cornet of France and Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic.