Safina, Jankovic, Venus advance in Rome

ROME – Top-ranked Dinara Safina rallied to beat Zheng Jie of China, 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (3), Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Italian Open.

Defending champion Jelena Jankovic also went through after her opponent retired with an illness, while Venus Williams battled past Russia’s Anna Chakvetadze, 6-0, 6-7 (8), 6-4.

However, French Open champion Ana Ivanovic squandered a four-game lead in the decisive set against Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska to lose, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4.

Safina is looking to win her first title since becoming the world’s No. 1 last month.

The 23-year-old Russian had an erratic game Wednesday, losing her serve seven times. But she displayed fighting spirit as she rallied from 5-2 down in the decisive set and went on to win the last six points of the tiebreaker.

“I’m upset with myself ... because I know I can play better,” Safina said. “I’m practicing and I’m playing great and aggressive, and suddenly I come on the court and it’s completely ... different person playing. Way too passive.”

The fourth-seeded Williams played from the baseline but frequently came to the net to finish off points as she won the first set in just 23 minutes.

But as Chakvetadze raised her game, Williams committed unforced errors and wasted a match point in the second-set tiebreaker before regaining her focus in the decider.

Unlike Safina, Ivanovic could not complete her comeback.

The Serb started off poorly against the 10th-seeded Radwanska and couldn’t hold serve in the first set. She began dictating play with precise groundstrokes in the second, and appeared headed toward victory as she jumped to a 4-0 lead in the final set.

Radwanska thought otherwise. Playing solid and consistent tennis, the 20-year-old won the last six games, ending the match with one of her 19 winners.

“She played extremely well and hardly made any errors,” Ivanovic said of her opponent. “She’s a great mover, and she was retrieving lots of balls.”

The fifth-seeded Ivanovic was more aggressive, and in the end had 31 winners. But she also committed 32 unforced errors – 20 more than her opponent.

By contrast, Jankovic was in impressive form and was leading 6-1, 1-0 when Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine called for the trainer and then pulled out with the flu. The two players had been on court for 35 minutes.

“I would have loved to finish the match, because I was playing pretty well in that first set,” Jankovic said. “I felt the ball really well and I had good timing.”

The 24-year-old Serb has won the Italian Open for the past two years and is looking to regain her best form after a slump at the start of the year. Jankovic next plays Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova, who ousted crowd favorite Flavia Pennetta, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0, in a little less that two hours.

Patty Schnyder, who defeated Serena Williams in three sets in a match that ended at 1 a.m. Wednesday, lost, 6-3, 6-0, to 16th-seeded Kaia Kanepi of Estonia. (AP)