Carla Suarez Navarro ousts Jelena Jankovic to reach the quarters – China Open 2012
Former world number one, Jelena Jankovic, stooped to the 46th ranked Spaniard, Carla Suarez Navarro, in the third round of the China Open on Wednesday. She lost the encounter in straight sets 5-7, 4-6; was sent packing
in a couple of minutes less than two hours time period.
World number 26, Jankovic, was playing her sixth contest against the 24-year-old Spaniard. She had won four matches on the trot that included one victory earlier this season during the Brisbane International. However, the following
two meetings this year has been edged by the 46th ranked Spanish fellow who won the match in Mutua Madrid Open and repeated a much better performance with a comfortable win in Beijing.
In a post-match interview on Wednesday, Navarro said, “Jelena is always difficult to play, but I played well. She always fights a lot, but I'm happy to have finished it off. I'm very happy to be in the next round and look forward
to playing again out there on Friday.”
Jankovic was ruling the show at the start of the encounter. She was 3-0 up in the contest courtesy two back-to-back breakpoints coupled with a fantastic serve hold. It seemed like the Serb will run away with the show in a short
period of time but the comeback from the Spaniard was worth applause.
Navarro won a breakpoint in the fourth game and but failed to win a single point in the seventh game that allowed the 27-year-old Serb to serve for the set. Jankovic failed on the first occurrence and gifted the breakthrough to
her rival who kept the set alive with a serve hold.
The Serb faltered again and the scores were equalized courtesy a serve hold. Navarro repeated the same scenario for the third time and took the set under the nose of her rival. Trailing a set down, the problems of Jankovic were
enhanced when she failed to hold serve in the second game.
The continuous swap of breakpoints lasted until the end of the contest and the pivotal factor in the second set victory proved to be the rare serve hold from the Spaniard in the first game. She will be up against the likes of the
ninth seed Frenchwoman, Marion Bartoli, in the quarters.
Tags: