Andrea Petkovic shocks Jelena Jankovic to reach final – Nurnberger Versicherungscup 2013
Local wild card entrant, Andrea Petkovic, stunned the top seeded Serb, Jelena Jankovic, in straight sets at the Nurnberger Versicherungscup 2013 on Friday. She recorded a 6-4, 6-3 victory against the Serb to power into her first
WTA final this season.
The former Top 10 player, Petkovic, re-ignited her old spark to outclass the Serb and reach the final for the first time since Beijing 20 months ago. Battling each other for the sixth time, the local contender extended her lead
in the head-to-head series by 4-2 against Jankovic and inched closer towards her third career title.
The local veteran was quoted in a courtside interview after stealing the show, "I'm absolutely overwhelmed right now. I think I played a really great match today. I didn't think it would be possible because I was really tired after
yesterday, so I pulled all of my power and strength that was left together and managed to put in a good performance out there today."
Petkovic made a disastrous entry in this match as she suffered the first blow in the opening game. However, she not only recovered after that but capitalised on another break chance to take a 5-3 lead. The German exchanged a break
after that before sealing the opener by winning six games to four.
Currently ranked 103rd in the WTA Premier Rankings, Petkovic lost her track again towards the following set. She gifted away her serve in the third game to go 1-2 down. However, the wild card entrant cashed on her break
chances and clinched the set with a 6-3 score line.
The German star bowed out in the qualifying competition at the French Open two weeks ago. She was playing badly and was about to quit tennis. However, she turned the tides towards her favour and reflected, "It's really absurd -
two weeks ago I was thinking about quitting tennis because I was playing so badly... But here I am now. The good thing about going through all of that is I appreciate everything much more now. I'm very thankful and grateful for all of this."
The local contender will square-off against the seventh seed, Simona Halep. The Romanian ace upset fifth seeded Lucie Safarova in a topsy-turvy match to set-up this epic final. She stepped off steam in the second set but re-gained
her strength to sum up a 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 score line.
Petkovic currently leads the Romanian in their only encounter at an ITF Women’s Circuit event four years ago.
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