Jelena Jankovic upset by world No. 268 in Moscow
There has been precious little joy on the tennis court for Jelena Jankovic since her retirement with a back problem in the fourth round at Wimbledon and things went from bad to worse for the former world No. 1 at the Kremlin Cup today as she was defeated in straight sets by the world No. 268.
Seventeen-year-old Zarina Diyas reeled off the first five games of the second-round match in Moscow in a one-sided first set as she utterly outplayed her seventh-ranked opponent.
Diyas again took the upper hand in the second set and it was perhaps fitting that a lacklustre Jankovic double fault handed the qualifier a double break in the second set, and the chance to serve for the biggest victory of her young career.
While Jankovic, suffering from an illness in the week prior to the match and seemingly still under the weather today, was below her best, Diyas was as decisive in the final game of the match as she had been in every previous game, serving out the victory to love.
In the end it took just a shade under one hour for Diyas to complete the 6-1, 6-2 win, during which she dropped just three points on her first serve and breaking Jankovic on each of the five chances she created to do so.
The win propels Diyas into the quarter-finals, where she’ll face sixth seed Maria Kirilenko, another who won in impressive style today, dismissing Kateryna Bondarenko 6-0, 6-0 in just 50 minutes.
The Kazakhstan No. 3 though will no doubt be full of confidence for the clash after her win against Jankovic, which came after toughing out a two hour and 49 minute, 6-3, 6-7(1), 7-6(5) win over world No. 49 Gisela Dulko in her first round match in the main draw.
Jankovic, who was the champion in Moscow in 2008, now heads to Doha for the season-ending WTA Tour Championships where she will surely be looking for a big improvement in both health and form if she’s to progress beyond the round-robin stage of the competition.
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