Jelena Jankovic upsets Francesca Schiavone in round 3 – Western & Southern Open 2011
Number thirteen seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia continued to improve her game play significantly as she upset world number eight Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 on Thursday to book her place in the quarterfinal of 2011 Western and Southern Open here in Ohio, United States.
Jankovic, who has done poorly on the Women’s Tennis Association tour for the last few months, looked very solid in her third round match at the Masters tournament as she emerged victorious in a long an tiring match against the inspirational Italian Tennis pro.
The Serbian had a great start to the match. Breaking the serve twice early in the opening set, she raced to an impassable 4-love lead. Known for her strong character, Schiavone came back to reduce the game score deficit but she failed to stop the former world number one from taking 1-0 lead in the set score.
Taking about her game, Jankovic said, “I was playing well in the first set and I was up like 4‑Love, and then I kind of stopped playing my game and I kind of, you know, started being a little passive and I kind of let her play, you know, her tennis.”
Showing good discipline in the second set as well, Jankovic managed to put a lot of pressure on the Italian. Executing her ferocious forehand winners to perfection, she created all sorts of problems for her opponent on a fast hard court surface. After a series of serve breaks were exchanged, Jankovic found herself in a very favourable position. Leading the game score at 5-4, she had an opportunity to close out the match in straight sets on her serve.
However at 4-5 and 30-30, Schiavone executed lobbed the ball over her head to dent her confidence levels. With momentum on her side, the Italian evened the set score 1-1 as the match entered the finals set.
Jankovic further added, “First set I did pretty well. I won 6‑3. But then I was serving for the match at 5‑4, and that was just, I mean, I don’t know. I got frustrated because, I mean, I hit a good serve at 30‑All and had an easy ball and she read me and just played some lob over my head, which really kind of hurt, you know.”
However, Jankovic managed to get the better of her opponent in the final set as she regrouped to re-establish control over the contest. Hitting a series of good shots, she bagged the set 6-4 to complete an important victory for her career.
Jankovic has not been able live up to the expectations since the year 2011 has started as she slipped to world number 14 in the WTA rankings. Experiencing several early round losses on the tour, the former world number one will be hoping to restore some of the lost pride in her quarterfinal match at the Cincinnati Open.
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