Top seed Jelena Jankovic advances to quarters in Mexico
with victory over Austria's Sybille Bammer
World number 6, Serb Jelena Jankovic overpowered Austrian Sybille Bammer in straight sets in their second round match at the Whirlpool Abierto Monterrey on Friday.
The 26-years-old Serb is in good shape this season. Despite early exits at Sydney and Australian Open, she reached the semi-finals at Dubai and Doha. In this tournament, she dumped Spanish Lourdes Dominguez Lino with a breadstick in the first round.
The 30-year-old Bammer, on the other hand, has lost six matches in a row against a top ten player. Her recent performance is also in jeopardy as she was ousted in the first rounds at Sydney, Australian Open and Acapulco. She overwhelmed Czech Andrea Hlavackova
in three sets in the first round of this event.
Jankovic earned a 6-3, 6-4 win in under 90 minutes. Both players displayed excellent skills and exchanged breaks in the 7th and 8th game of the opening set. However the Serb’s early break led her to clinch the set with a 6-3 score.
Jelena committed two double faults but overcame her errors by earning a much higher first serve percentage of 71 percent as compared to Bammer’s 56 percent. Bammer played really good as well fending off five break points and scoring acceptable points on her
return shots though it wasn’t enough to hold her back.
Still in the fight, Bammer didn’t raise the white flag as she held her serve in the first game of the second set. She played comparatively better this time though she committed several unforced errors to gift away the set. The Serb on the other hand, fired
3 aces and smashed powerful forehands to win this set 6-4. She broke Bammer’s serve twice and saved five break points to advance at the tournament. Jankovic also registered an impressive 75 percent win on her first serve.
Defeating the Austrian, Jankovic extended her head to head lead to 8-1.
She will next face 5th seeded Latvian Anastasija Sevastova in the quarter-finals. It will be a worthwhile duel to watch but the Serb with her current top form would clearly be the favourite to win.
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