2010 WTA San Diego Open: Alisa Kleybanova defeats top seeded Jelena Jankovic, books place in quarterfinals
Russian Alisa Kleybanova knocked down the top-seeded Serbian tennis ace Jelena Jankovic in her round number two match of the San Diego Classic tennis tournament on Wednesday in straight sets. The final score was 7-5, 6-2.
The strong Russian was down in the first set of the match at 0-4; however, she came back strongly in the following sets to get the better of the second ranked player in the world from the women’s side, Jelena Jankovic, who lacked movement as well as perfection against her opponent on the court.
Jelena injured her left ankle at a tennis championship in Slovenia some twelve days ago, and admitted after the match that she had yet to come back in her full form.
"I was not feeling comfortable throughout the match and had some fears as far as my movement is concerned because I was worried that I would twist it once again”, commented Jankovic following her defeat. "I was not feeling confident as to where should I hit the ball or should I go for offensive or defensive game through the match,” she added.
Alisa, on the other hand, started off the season by grabbing her very first WTA trophy in Kuala Lumpur. According to the AFP, Kleybanova now has four career victories against top five players.
"She is always a tough opponent to battle on the court and winning against her is not that easy at all,” Kleybanova commented after improving stats to 3-2 against Jankovic. "However, I am glad that I am performing well, my game is capable enough to knock down tough opponents on the court and I have proved this once again by hammering down Jelena in today’s match,” Alisa added.
In another match on Wednesday, second-seeded Samantha Stosur from Australia thrashed her young opponent, Melanie Oudin from the United States of America, in straight sets. The final score was 6-4, 6-4.
Two other players also won their matches on Wednesday, namely fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska from Poland, who defeated the former number one tennis ace, Dinara Safina in a total of two sets, along with the seventh seeded Shahar Peer from Israel, who defeated Yaroslava Shvedova from Kazakhstan 7-5, 6-4.
Stosur, in her match, made effective use of her strong serve as well as her big forehand to overcome Oudin, who had the spectators on her side but still failed to manage her opponent's powerful serve.
The French Open runner-up managed to attack Melanie's weak second serve and reduced rallies by repeatedly altering the net as well as the knocking volleys.
“She needs to work seriously on a lot of areas like she smashes a lot of balls down and stays a lot back so all her opponent needs to do is to give her less time in order to win more points”, Stosur commented after the match.
On the other hand, Radwanska did well to knock down former world number one Dinara Safina, who did not play at her very best on Wednesday, and lost in straight sets (1-6, 3-6). Russian Safina, who is a major finalist on three occasions, had succeeded in her second match of the tournament after a period of four months on Tuesday; however, against Radwanska, the Russian tennis ace couldn’t repeat her performance.
"I was playing better and she on the other hand was committing several mistakes”, said Radwanska, who was knocked down by Safina in their previous two clashes.
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