Jelena Jankovic prevails over American teenager Christina McHale in easy straight sets
Former World Number 1 Jelena Jankovic defeated Christina McHale of USA in two easy sets at the 2011 Family Circle Cup on Friday, scoring an easy win over the unseeded player to secure a semi-final slot for herself. The Serbian pro won the match 6-2, 6-0, taking less than one hour and twenty minutes to send McHale packing.
Jelena Jankovic is currently ranked World Number 8, and has spent a considerable amount of time as one of the Women’s Tennis Associations Top 10 players. She turned pro almost eleven years ago in 2000, at the age of fifteen, and has been playing as a professional since then. Now 26 years old, the player currently resides in Dubai, UAE. She is one of the most successful Top 10 players, managing to ascend to the top spot of World Number 1 for a brief period of time and winning a grand total of twelve WTA career titles.
Christina McHale, on the other hand, is the new women’s tennis sensation in USA. Just 18 years old and barely pro, she is already ranked inside the Top 100 at World Number 97. She lives in New Jersey, USA, and has been making waves on the tennis scene with her high profile defeats this week. Conquests include qualifier Heather Watson of Great Britain, eighth seed Alisa Kleybanova of Russia and tenth seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia. With these victories, McHale also secured a definite spot for herself in the US Fed Cup team, and has been touted as the next big thing for American tennis since Serena and Venus, the Williams sisters. Her teammates include Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Melanie Oudin and doubles pro Liezel Huber.
The match was a very easy one for the experienced Serbian pro, who overcame McHale without much ado. She scored four aces during the match, while the American could only muster one. Despite this, both players committed just two double faults, but Jankovic took the lead by defending herself against all five break points. She also further helped her cause by managing to convert five of eleven break points against McHale. She also scored 71 per cent of her first serve points, while McHale was left behind with 65 per cent. By the end of the match, Jelena Jankovic defeated Christina McHale with a bagel in the second set, winning a whopping 66 out of 110 points to make a total of 60 per cent and a scoreline of 6-2, 6-0. This was the first meeting between the two pros, bringing their head to head record to 1-0 for Jankovic.
The Slovakian pro will now face Danish World Number 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the semi-finals of the Family Circle Cup.
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