Yung-Jan Chan upsets Jelena Jankovic in the quarter-final brawl – Mercury Insurance Open 2012
A nail-biting brawl was witnessed in the quarter-final round of the Mercury Insurance Open on Friday, with the former world number one, Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, crashing out of the competition in a dismal manner. Third seed Jankovic
was outplayed by the current 161st ranked Taiwanese underdog, Yung-Jan Chan, in three gruelling sets to let her opponent into the semi-final draw. Chan settled the final score line at 6-7(4), 7-6(8), 7-5, to register the biggest upset of the tournament
so far.
It was hardly expected that Jankovic will submit to the inferior ranked Taiwanese contender but it was Chan’s brilliant game play which forced the reigning world number 19 to succumb. The 22-year-old posed some real stiff resistance
to the third seeded opponent in the first set of the match but couldn’t deliver the final blow, losing it to fall 0-1 down. Chan regrouped in the very next set of the match and came out firing at Jankovic, hunting her down in the tie-break to level the scores
at 1-1. She carried on her winning impetus in the decisive set of the contest, with Jankovic fighting desperately to remain alive in the tournament, but a cracking break of serve towards the end of the match sealed victory for Chan in an emphatic fashion.
"I thought the match was really a mental game between us, and I'm really glad that I did it," Chan said in her post match reviews. "The tie-break in the second set was really close. Even I didn't know who was going to win it. But
when she got two match points, I just felt like I knew where she was going to go and what she was going to do. So I just tried to do what I thought I needed to do, and it worked. This win means a lot for me, especially because I was in the qualies here. I
think it could be one of the best matches I've played in my career."
Jankovic evenly matched her opponent in every segment of the game but it appeared to be just the matter of time that Chan clinched some crucial points to turn the tables on the third seed Serbian. Jankovic registered seven out
of 17 break points, whilst the Taiwanese contender nailed eight out of 15 breaks of serve to come out as the surprise winner.
Chan will have to face the top seeded French powerhouse, Marion Bartoli, in the semi-final draw of the Mercury Insurance Open.
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