Jelena Jankovic labours past Anabel Garrigues into the last eight at Internazionali BNL d’Italia
Fifth seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic battled past Spanish qualifier Anabel Medina Garrigues in a three set thriller at Internazionali BNL d’Italia, a WTA Premier 5 event held in Rome, Italy. She registered a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 victory
over the 28-year-old Spaniard to advance into the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Ranked 9th in the WTA Premier rankings, Jankovic took two hours and forty-five minutes to down the Spaniard, ranked 33 places below her, in their eight meeting. The Serb won for the eighth straight time against Garrigues
and made an 8-0 score line in their head-to-head series.
A former world number one, Jankovic showed her class in the opening set and held her opening serve spectacularly. Despite clobbering more double faults and losing serve twice, she broke the Spaniard’s serve three times to eventually
seal the set by winning six games to four.
Garrigues got on track in the second set and smoothly held her opening serve. She lost her serve once and broke the Serb’s serve three times to win the equaliser with a 6-2 score line.
26-year-old Jankovic got her head back in the game in the decider. Regardless of committing three double faults and lost her serve twice, she broke the Spaniard’s serve four times to clinch the final set with an assuring 6-2 win.
The Serb produced a higher first serve share of 66 percent as compared with Garrigues’ 61 percent and registered a convincing 59 percent win on it. She saved eight out of fifteen breakpoint faced and converted eight out of seventeen
breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to clinch the set.
"It was a great win for me today," Jankovic said. "My opponent is a great clay court player and was hitting the ball well, especially in that second set. I just fought from beginning to end and tried to stay as positive as I could.
I managed to be a little stronger in the end and am happy I was able to pull the match out."
Jankovic had won two titles here at 2007 and 2008 and was a runner up here last year after taking out the Williams sisters en route to the final. She had a mediocre season so far. The Serb exited from the early rounds at Sydney
and Australian Open but made semi-final berths at Dubai and Doha afterwards. She then reached the final at Monterrey and the semi-final at Charleston, after which her form dipped as she was ousted in early rounds at Stuttgart and Madrid before entering this
cay court tournament.
Up next for the Serb is the top seeded Dane Caroline Wozniacki. The world number one Wozniacki, who has reached the quarters here for the first time, is in top form this season so far. She earned a breadstick against Belgian Yanina
Wickmayer to reach this spot and is eyeing her fourth WTA title this year.
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