Jelena Jankovic and Samantha Stosur cleared their third round matches at the Sony Ericsson Open
World number seven, Jelena Jankovic of Serbia won her contest against the 32 seeded Klara Zakopalova of Czech Republic, in the third round of the Sony Ericsson Open at Miami, Florida on Saturday night. The sixth seed Serb concluded
straight sets victory at 7-5, 6-1, in just 73 minutes of play to move on to the next round of the tournament.
The Serb kept her winning streak against Zakopalova, winning three contests in a row against the Czech and improving her head-to-head record to 3-2. It was the 14th victory for Jankovic in the running WTA (Women’s Tennis
Association) season at Miami. After a hard-fought opening set, the 26-year-old Serb cruised through the next set to conclude victory, ejecting Zakopalova from the tournament.
Despite of an ordinary serve game, Jankovic managed to overcome her bleak opponent in the game. She served merely with 53 per cent first serve, conceding six double faults and belting just one ace in the contest. However, the world
number seven was very effective on bagging crucial points on regularity as she collected 20 out of 27 first serve points in the match and broke her opponent seven out of 10 times.
An enthralling opening set was witnessed as Zakopalova struck three serve breaks and Jankovic replied her with four. The Serb closed out the first set 7-5 after a stiff contest, leading 1-0 in the contest. The Czech competitor
lost her steam in the next set and succumbed to Jankovic in the seventh game of the set. The Serb stung three break points to seal off the second set at 6-1 and register a win.
Jankovic will be taking on the unseeded Spanish, Anabel Medina Garrigues in the fourth round. The Spaniard stood victory against Elena Vesnina of Russia in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, in the third round at Miami.
In the other third round match of the Saturday evening, the fourth seed Australian, Samantha Stosur won her match against the 30th seed Czech, Lucie Safarova. The Aussie edged past her opponent in straight sets, 6-0,
7-6(1) in barely 70 minutes of play to reach the next stage of the Sony Ericsson Open.
Stosur finally broke the winning streak of Safarova, who has beaten her on all three prior occasions and was leading the head-to-head record with 3-0. The Aussie took a quick start to the game and gave no time to her Czech opponent
to settle down in the opener, breaking her three times consecutively. Safarova’s five double faults assisted Stosur to bag the opening set at 6-0.
A stiff contest from both contestants took the second to a tie breaker round, where the Aussie outclassed Safarova, letting only one point to her and closing the set at 7-6(1). Stosur will take down the former world number one,
Maria Sharapova of Russia in the next round. The Russian crushed the German wildcard, Sabine Lisicki in the third round, 6-2, 6-0, to make a spot in the round of 16 at Sony Ericsson Open.
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