Dinara Safina to SemiFinal : US OPEN 2008

Safina maintained her impressive form as she swept past Italy's Flavia Pennetta 6-2 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of for the first time.

The Russian, who has made the final in six of her last seven tournaments, broke the 16th seed at the first attempt and overpowered her in the first set.

Pennetta put up a better fight at the start of the second but lost her way and Safina sealed a comfortable win.

Safina, the sister of 2000 champion Marat Safin, had never previously been past the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows, and the French Open runner-up said: "I'm getting closer to reaching the same thing as my brother."

Olympic champion and fifth seed Elena Dementieva faces second seed Jelena Jankovic in the other semi-final.