Melanie Oudin stuns Jelena Jankovic to lift her maiden WTA title – AEGON Classic 2012
Rain-stricken grass court event in Birmingham, England, witnessed a stunning end and a rise of a new champion on the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Tour. The 20-year-old American tennis prodigy, Melanie Oudin, outplayed the former
world number one, Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, to claim her maiden championship title at the AEGON Classic tournament on Monday.
The American made her way to the main draw after some brilliant performances in the qualifiers and carried on with her winning impetus en route to her career first gold. Oudin registered a thumping victory in straight sets, 6-4,
6-2, to hunt down the fifth seeded hot favourite with authority. It is the second time that the American youngster had defeated Jankovic one-on-one. Last time, it was the third round at 2009 Wimbledon Championships where Jankovic had to bow out to the brilliance
of Oudin but it was a gruelling three setter. The 20-year-old wrapped up her championship victory on Monday with far ease than her earlier triumph over the former top ranked opponent.
Oudin was extremely delighted with her maiden title victory and hopes for more trophies coming her way this season.
"One of the worst times was after Wimbledon last year," Oudin said. "It was the end of my Europe trip and I think I lost every match. I lost first round in like five or six tournaments, except for one. I felt horrible. I thought
for sure things would be better. I took time off after that and was fresh and ready to go, but things still weren't better. I was waiting for something to happen and it didn't. But at the US Open in 2009, and Wimbledon that year too, something came out of
nowhere. And it felt like that was going to happen again here."
The American qualifier had a ordinary serve precision in the matchup, reaching just 55 per cent but she clinched 21 out of 35 points on it and broke the Serbian serve five out of nine times to come out as the winner. Jankovic could
barely register two out of eight break points in the entire matchup to finish off on the losing side in the end.
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