Jelena Jankovic stays on track in Indian Wells
6th seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic stays on track to win the BNP Paribas Open twice in a row. She dumped 32nd seeded German Julia Goerges in straight sets in the third round on Sunday.
The world number six, Jankovic is aiming to become the first women to win the title back to back since Martina Navratilova in 1990-1991. She has improved her quality of play with semi-finals berth at Dubai and Doha. She also displayed
her tremendous skills at Monterrey before losing to 2nd seeded Russian wild card Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final.
The Serbian is in her 12 match winning record in her last 15 matches. She carried her winning momentum from her first match in the second round to this third round match as she dumped Goerges out of this tournament convincingly
in 79 minutes.
In the opening set, the former world number one, Jankovic outshined the German in every department of tennis. She fired an ace, saved three break points and converted two opportunities to her advantage to win the first set 6-2.
She also had a much better first serve percentage of 77 per cent as compared to German’s 68 percent and she registered an impressive 74 per cent win on it.
Serb lost her concentration in the second set as she double faulted three times and lost one break of serve. She also had a lower first serve percentage of 61 per cent as compared to Goerges 70 per cent. However, she still managed
to clinch the second set 6-4 as she earned an astonishing 82 per cent win on her first serve and broke the German’s serve twice.
Although, the German on the other side of the net had a similar first serve percentage of 69 per cent she couldn’t hold the former champion back.
"I had a tough opponent. Julia hits the ball big and serves well," Jankovic said. "I was happy I held my ground and played my game. I'm happy with the way I'm playing at the moment and looking forward to the fourth round."
She will next face her 19th seeded countrywomen Ana Ivanovic who is also a former world number one and would be a must see duel. Ivanovic leads the head to head series by 6-3 but Jankovic has won her last two matches
with the most recent on clay court in Madrid.
Talking about her match with Ivanovic, Jankovic said, "It's just another match. She's a tough opponent.... I hope to play the best I can and enjoy it. "
Tags: