Lucie Safarova stuns Jelena Jankovic to advance into the next round at the Mutua Madrid Open
Czech Lucie Safarova upset seventh seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic in a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 nail biter match on Wednesday. She has now advanced into the third round of the 2011 Mutua Madrid Open, a clay court tournament, held in Spain.
24-year-old Czech overpowered her two years older veteran rival for the first time in their fifth meeting. They last met at Moscow in 2009 where Jankovic easily triumphed over her. However, Safarova finally pounced over the former
world number one here at Park Manzanares to lower the trail in their head-to-head series by 1-4.
Ranked 32nd in the WTA Premier rankings, Safarova hasn’t had much progress this season so far. However, she recently showed exceptional skills at Kuala Lumpur in February where she reached the finals. Regardless of exiting
from the first round at Stuttgart, the Czech re-focused her strategy before entering this WTA Premier Mandatory event. She overwhelmed Spanish wild card Anabel Medina Garrigues and Jankovic in three sets.
The Czech made quick in-roads by smashing three aces and producing a higher first serve share of 68 percent in the opening set. She exchanged an early break and broke the Serbian’s serve again later in the set to win it with a
6-4 score line. Safarova earned a convincing 58 percent win on her first serve and found three breakpoint opportunities in the set.
World number seven Jankovic, who made semi-final berths at Dubai, Doha and Charleston and reached the final at Monterrey, got on track in the second set. Regardless of committing two double faults and many unforced errors, she
produced a much better first serve share of 71 percent as compared to Czech’s 55 percent. The Serb also registered an impressive 68 percent win on it and saved all four breakpoints with her awesome agility. She then converted the only breakpoint opportunity
to her advantage to clinch the equaliser with a 6-4 win.
Safarova raised her level of game in the decider. Despite committing four double faults, she produced a higher first serve share and earned a plausible 69 percent win on it. The Czech then saved nine out of ten breakpoints faced
and converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the set by winning seven games to Jankovic’s five.
"I never won against Jelena and when I went onto the court I really wanted to change the statistics," said Safarova. "She made quite a lot of mistakes in the first set but came back and really started to play well. It was really
good tennis and I'm happy that I won."
Up next for her is the Australian Jarmila Gajdosova who upset tenth seeded Polish Agnieszka Radwanska to reach this spot.
The only other seed that was playing later that day successfully advanced into the next round. Sixth seed Na Li downed Czech Iveta Benesova in straight sets in just under one hour.
Tags: