Jelena Jankovic loses chance to defend her title at the 2011 BNP Paribas Open
The world number six Serb, Jelena Jankovic failed to defend her title at the 2011 BNP Paribas Open on Tuesday. The 6th seed was ousted by her 19th seeded compatriot Ana Ivanovic in the fourth round in straight
sets.
World number 21, Ivanovic hasn’t had much progress this season and the furthest she reached was in the quarter-finals at Pattaya before losing to 5thseeded Italian Roberta Vinci. But in this tournament she reached the
last eight again after dumping Jankovic out of the Indian Wells WTA event through her tremendous skills.
The 23-year-old Ivanovic was charged up from the start as she broke Jankovic’s serve in the very first game. Both players then displayed an awe-inspiring game of tennis as they held all of their serves. Although Ivanovic double
faulted more and had a lower first serve percentage of 59 percent as compared to Jankovic’s 69 percent, she clinched the set 6-4 due to an early break. She also earned an impressive 80 percent win on her first serve.
She kept her winning form in the second set as she broke in the very first game again and held her serve in the proceeding game. Though the title holder showed some resistance by winning the next two games but Ivanovic cruised
to win the set 6-2 by winning the next four games in a row. She had a higher first serve percentage again and registered a convincing 62 percent win on it.
Overall Ivanovic produced 7 aces and hammered 33 massive winners. She also took crucial breaks in both sets and held her service games with confidence to win the match 6-4, 6-2 spectacularly. On the other hand Jankovic, who was
dreaming to become the second woman after Martina Navratilova in 1991 to win back-to-back titles here, converted only one of seven breakpoint opportunities and despite having a higher first serve percentage, she took no advantage of it.
"She played such a great match today," said Jankovic. "She really didn't make a lot of unforced errors. She hit the ball pretty clean, pretty solid. I felt really flat, and she took advantage of all that."
Ivanovic will next be facing 15th seeded French Marion Bartoli. She lost the first set in her match but was lucky against the 2nd seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters who retired in the second set.
The world number two, Clijsters was in her top form and won the first set by breaking Bartoli’s serve three times. But she pulled out of the Indian Wells WTA event after trailing 1-3 in the second set due to a shoulder injury.
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