Jelena Jankovic and Alexandra Dulgheru through to the quarter-finals of Sony Ericsson Open
World number seven Jelena Jankovic of Serbia continued her five-match winning streak against Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain by shattering her in straight sets 6-1, 6-3, in the fourth round of Sony Ericsson Open at Miami, Florida
on Monday night. The sixth seeded Serb took just one hour and twenty one minutes to seal victory for herself and advance to the quarter-finals of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) event.
The 26-year-old Jankovic registered her 14th victory of the running WTA season at Miami by defeating Garrigues for a fifth consecutive time and extending the head-to-head record against the Spaniard to 7-1. The Serb
was ruthless to her opponent right from the beginning of the contest, dominating Garrigues with her power game and pushing her out of the game.
Jankovic delivered almost 70 per cent of her first serve on target, firing six aces in the game and spilling out four double faults. She collected 80 per cent first serve points and struck three crucial serve breaks to get to an
impassable 5-1 lead in the opener. The Spanish bagged one break point but eventually had to submit the first set to her stronger Serb opponent at 1-6.
The sixth seed carried on her winning momentum to the next set and belted five aces while serving at 73 per cent accuracy. Jankovic gave no opportunities to her opponent to bounce back in the game and raced away to victory by closing
the second set at 6-3 to book a quarter-final berth at Miami. The Serb will take on 21st seed Andrea Petkovic, who registered an upset victory over the world number one Caroline Wozniacki in a tough battle, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, to reach the round of eight.
In the other fourth round match of the evening, 26th seed Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania stood victorious against the unseeded Chinese, Shuai Peng to move on to the quarter-final round. The Romanian took one hour and
twenty eight minutes to wrap up the contest in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.
Dulgheru faced limited resistance from the Chinese opponent and cruised through the opener by striking four serve breaks. Peng delivered 79 per cent of her first serve on target and hit two break points but couldn’t avoid losing
the first set at 3-6.
Peng fought hard in the next set and stung three serve breaks to the Romanian serve but her opponent retaliated with four break points to route the Chinese out of the game. Dulgheru closed out the contest at 6-4, advancing to the
quarter-final of Sony Ericsson Open. She will take on the former world number one Maria Sharapova, who defeated the 5th ranked Australian Samantha Stosur in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1, to reach the round of eight.
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