TENNIS US OPEN:JELENA JANKOVIC reached the first grand slam final of her career after beating Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-finals of the US Open in Flushing Meadows last night.

The second seed Serb recovered from dropping her opening service game of the match at the Arthur Ashe Stadium to level the first set at 4-4.

She then held her serve to move into a 5-4 lead before clinching the set on her first set point when Dementieva put a backhand into the net.

The Russian, who was also seeking the first grand slam crown of her career, came into the match on the back of winning gold at the Olympics in Beijing.

And she again broke first in the second set to take a 2-1 lead, but a further three successive breaks - two for Jankovic and one Dementieva - levelled it up at 3-3.

Serving to stay in the match at 4-5, Dementieva, the runner-up at Flushing Meadows in 2004, pushed a forehand long to give Jankovic victory.

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic has apologised for his verbal attack on Andy Roddick in the wake of his 6-2, 6-3, 3-6 7-6, (7/5) quarter-final victory at the US Open early yesterday, claiming he had misunderstood the American's comments that he had "faked" injuries.

Third seed Djokovic - who, weather permitting, will meet defending champion Roger Federer today in a repeat of last year's final - raced into a two-set lead before Roddick battled back to claim the third. A closely contested fourth went into a tie-break and the 26-year-old was just two points away from taking the match into fifth set at 5-4.

However, Roddick double-faulted twice in a row before Djokovic served out to win the match.

Roddick had jokingly commented that Djokovic had faked "16 injuries" during his victory over Tommy Robredo in the fourth round.

But Djokovic took offence and used a courtside interview to attack Roddick, much to the displeasure of the partisan crowd, who promptly booed him off court.

"I know they (the crowd) are already against me because they think I am faking everything," said the Serbian. "That's not nice to say in front of this crowd that I have 16 injuries and that I'm faking it."

However, an apologetic Djokovic later admitted during his post-match press conference he had misinterpreted Roddick's joke.

"Unfortunately, Andy made a statement, and I don't think it was intentional," he added. "He made a joke and it was a misunderstanding.

"I exaggerated and I reacted bad in that moment. I apologise if I reacted like that. It was just impulsive and I had a lot of emotions in the last two days."

In today's other semi-final, Andy Murray takes on the world number one, Rafael Nadal.