Jelena Jankovic defeats Klara Zakopalova; advances into the semis at Qatar Ladies Open
5th seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic defeated Czech Klara Zakopalova by 6-2, 6-4 at the Doha WTA Premier event on Thursday.
In the opening set, the Czech fired an ace and saved three break points but was only able to hold on to her serve twice. On the other side of net, Jankovic was on fire as she broke Czech’s serves twice, and won six games by displaying
her awesome skills and abilities. She outclassed the Czech completely as she got a higher first serve percentage of 67 percent as compared to Zakopalova’s 56 percent. She also registered an impressive 75 percent win on it.
Czech re-formed herself and put her head back in the game in the second set. She saved three break points and converted two and played much better in this set as compared to her performance in the first set. But the top ten, Jankovic
outshined her again as she played even better to clinch the set with a 6-4 score line. Even though she committed three double faults but the Serb hammered 2 aces and had a much better first serve percentage of 73 percent in contrast with Zakopalova’s 46 percent.
In addition to this, she earned a convincing 67 percent win on it.
World number six, Jankovic has won 7 out of her last 10 matches. Before entering this tournament, she reached the semi-finals at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships where she lost to world number one, Caroline Wozniacki, in
the semi-finals. Thus she entered this tournament confidently and overwhelmed Omani wild card Fatma Al Nabhani and Indian wild card Sania Mirza in the first two rounds.
Jankovic has now levelled her head-to-head series by 2-2 against Zakopalova.
“I just focused on my game and my tennis and I'm glad I was able to win today,” Jankovic said afterwards. “I've played some really good tennis so I look forward to playing in the semi-finals. I'll try my best and hopefully I can
play well.”
The Serb will be facing 2nd seed, Russian Vera Zvonareva in the semi-finals. The Russian defeated the in-form Daniela Hantuchova in tough three sets in the quarter-finals.
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