World No 1 Ivanovic reaches French final with Grant aid

This time he was on the winning side. The former Chelsea boss sat alongside Ana Ivanovic's coaches, in the midst of her personallyinvited support group, as she fought her way into the the French Open Final with a gripping 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory over fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic.

Serbia's Ana Ivanovic celebrates her semi-final victory over Jelena Jankovic at Roland Garros

Grant was here through his friendship with Dan Holzmann, I v a n o v i c ' s manager, who spotted her as a teenager in Belgrade and took her to Switzerland to train.

While the football man's career is in limbo, that of 20-year-old Ivanovic most certainly is not and this could well be the breakthrough she has been seeking.

Tomorrow she faces 13th seed Dinara Safina - younger sister of twice Grand Slam winner Marat Safin - but has already been rewarded with the world No 1 spot, taking it from Maria Sharapova who two weeks ago inherited it from Justine Henin.

The Russian went out in the fourth round here and her bid to get back on track at Wimbledon could also be in trouble.

She has withdrawn from the Eastbourne tournament the week before The Championships citing a shoulder injury and has gone home to America, although is still expected to play at Wimbledon.

Jankovic would have been No 1 had she won this match so the stakes were extraordinarily high, especially with the less-fancied Safina waiting in the final.

In such circumstances Ivanovic has been known to falter, having underperformed in her two previous Grand Slam finals, here last year and at the Australian Open in January. Her solution this time was to be very animated and continually look up to her support staff alongside the notoriously inert Grant.

Yet when she started blazing unforced errors all over the place in the second set and got broken early in the third it looked as if she would choke again. But she blasted her way back to break once and then again to claim the decider. Even her biggest celebrity supporter looked vaguely excited. Safina had made easy work of the more favoured Svetlana Kuznetsova, beating her 6-3, 6-2 with ease in contrast to her two previous matches.

Twice, in beating Elena Dementieva and Sharapova, Safina has been a point away from defeat but this time she powered through against another of the higher seeds who seemed to be afflicted by the weight of expectation in the absence of Henin.

World No 3 Novak Djokovic faces the ultimate test today when he takes on the seemingly invincible Rafael Nadal for a place in the men's final.

Nobody has ever beaten Nadal at Roland Garros but in the event of an upset the Serb's meteoric rise of the past 12 months would take him ahead of the Spaniard to No 2 in the world.

Roger Federer will need to draw on all his experience when he faces 59th-ranked French surprise Gael Monfils for a likely crack at Nadal.

The 22-year-old Monfils, who has never been past the last 16 of a Grand Slam before, has captured his home country's imagination and is sure to have partisan support. With parents from Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Monfils is the first homegrown male to reach the last four since 2001 and is trying to become the first from the host nation to win the title since Yannick Noah 25 years ago.