BEIJING, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Incoming world number one Rafael Nadal and world number 15 Fernando Gonzalez will meet in the men's singles final in the Beiing Olympic tennis event after two blockbuster semifinals on Friday.
In a rain-delayed women's singles quarterfinal, Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina ousted an underperforming world number one Jelena Jankovic to reach the semifinals where she will take on Chinese player Li Na on Saturday.
Li should stand in a favored position, given the thunderous home support and a clean 2-0 record sheet over the Russian opponent in career.
Nadal, who is set to take over the No. 1 spot from Swiss mogul Roger Federer, overcame the second set slump to beat Serb Novak Djokovic 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.
The Serbian world number three hit a smash long to give the 22-year-old the first win on hard surface this season after battling for two hours and 10 minutes.
With the victory, Nadal now leads 10-4 over Djokovic in career.
American James Blake and Chilean Gonzalez joined to produce a thrilling yet controversial game where a point in the third set apparently distracted the American's mind.
Blake lost his concentration towards the end of the match when the umpire missed that Gonzalez's racquet touched a Blake backhand that went long and should have put the American 15-0 up on Gonzelez's serve in the 18th game of the third set.
And in the post-match press conference, the eighth seed hit hard at Gonzalez's sportsmanship.
"Yeah, hit a shot that hit Fernando's racquet and then went out. The umpire didn't see that it hit his racquet," said Blake.
"Playing in the Olympics, in what's supposed to be considered a gentleman's sport, that's a time to call it on yourself.
"Fernando looked me square in the eye and didn't call it," said a disappointed Blake.
After the incident, Gonzalez positioned himself to win the match when he broke the American's serve on a second break point in the 19th game, when the American hit a forehand approach long.
Blake fought hard to prevent his demise by saving four match points in the final game but made two forehand errors to lose the match from deuce.
"I've spoken all week about how much I've enjoyed the Olympic experience, how much I love the spirit of it, how much I love the other athletes, what they've sacrificed, and you appreciate that. And the guys go out and compete their hardest, win fair and square, lose fair and square," said the 28-year-old Blake.
"That's a disappointing way to exit the tournament when you not only lose the match, but you lose a little faith in your fellow competitor.
"I know him very well. I've played him many times on tour. He does everything in his power to win. Usually it's in the rules, sometimes it's bordering on gamesmanship. Whatever, that happens out there all the time.
"But he's too good of a player to do something like that and to act like that. That's why it's disappointing, because he is a great player. I can't take away anything from the fact he won the match. Came from back from three match points down, served really well, hung in the whole time. I'm not going to take anything away from the kind of tennis he can play, but there's still a level of disappointment in him."
Safina completed women's singles semifinals line-up and assured Russia of at least two medals from the women's singles when she joined her compatriots Elena Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals after defeating Jankovic 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 in the last quarterfinal.
Bolstered by her victory against Jankovic three weeks ago at Los Angeles, Safina made a confident start and broke twice in the first set as her opponent struggled to find any rhythm.
After a consistent second set, Jankovic hit low gear again in the deciding set.
"She's been playing great tennis the last couple of months. She's in great form in the moment," Jankovic said of Safina after the match, "and she has won like a few tournaments, so the results show she's really playing well and she deserves to be in the top of the woman's game in this moment, because a lot of us are injured and not playing very well, not in a great form, so she has a chance to become No. 1 or very close to No. 1."
"But it's not a question of becoming No. 1 now. The year is quite long and we still have a lot of tournaments to play until the end of the year, so it will be a battle."
Safina's semifinal opponent Li has already defeated two top 10 players in the Olympic tennis event and she is the only non-Russian through to the semifinals of the women's singles.
In the other women's singles semifinal, ninth seed Vera Zvonareva will play fifth seed Elena Dementieva in an all-Russian clash. Dementieva leads 3-1 over her compatriot.
Having been ousted from the singles event, Swiss Federer found himself still have a chance to compete for an Olympic gold medal, in men's doubles this time, after joining compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka to beat top seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan from the United States 7-6(6), 6-4 in the semifinals.
The Swiss duo will play Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson of Sweden in Saturday's final.
