Jelena Jankovic ousts Iveta Benesova in opening round – Western & Southern Open 2011
Czech Iveta Benesova and Serbian Jelena Jankovic were not meeting for the first time in their professional career on the hard courts of the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio when they met for their first round match at
the 2011 Western and Southern Open. Jelena won the match in 68 minutes with a straight set victory of a bagel (6-0) and 6-3.
With a nervous demeanour Jankovic committed 3 foot faults and 3 aces, whereas, Benesova’s precision had failed her once, committing only one double fault. Thus, Jankovic started off with a poor start but along the way regained
her confidence.
The Serb had hacked her opponent’s weakness and hence, scored a good win of 88% in her first serve but nosedived in her second, however, she was still capable of achieving 64% of her total service points. On the contrary, the
Czech had attained 5/17 points, making it a poor 29% of her total service points.
Benesova’s return was somewhat better than her serve but with a failing backhand she could only muster 36% of her total return points, in comparison to her Serbian adversary, who was a barrage of volleys, that enabled her to bag
a grand 12 out of 17 points, making it a 71% win of her total return points.
A sturdy defence won Benesova 60% of her break points and she was also able to save the two break points on her serve, hence, she did not let her opponent break her even once. Jankovic had a completely different ball game and although,
she was unable to win any break points to her advantage she managed to save 40% of her break points.
However, because of a strong return and serve Jankovic was able to accomplish 67% of her total set score, against Benesova who had almost half as many points as her rival’s.
Although Jankovic had won the first set, she was extremely jittery and impatient which led her to striking four double faults (all hit the net), however, she was still able to smash three aces.
Jankovic was a big server and with strong ground strokes bagged 60% of her total service points, while, Benesova was also a good server, but her serves were incomparable to her adversary’s and was only able to achieve 52% of her
total service points.
28-year-old Benesova was unable to hit her opponent’s returns and with a mediocre return she attained 14 out of 35 points, putting together only 40% of her total return points. On the other hand, with an above average return of
48% Jankovic sealed the set to secure a place in the second round of the event.
The last time the two had met was at the Rogers Cup 2010 in Montreal, where Benesova had managed to equalize their head-to-head to 2-2, but it was a short lived dream and Jankovic came back with a vengeance and once more secured
the lead.
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