Published>Wed, May 12 10 11:27 PM
Seventh seed Jelena Jankovic won a tense Serbian battle in the Madrid Open second round on Wednesday when she came from a set down to beat Ana Ivanovic 4-6 6-4 6-1.
Fourth seed Venus Williams ensured she will rise to number two in the rankings next week after she pulled off a battling 3-6 6-1 6-2 victory in her third-round match against Francesca Schiavone.
With Venus's sister Serena at number one, it will be the first time since May 2003 the pair, who have won 19 singles grand slam titles between them, have been ranked first and second.
While the Williams double act were back on top of the rankings, former world number ones Jankovic and Ivanovic were out to claim bragging rights.
In a match littered with errors on the clay of Manolo Santana centre court, both players struggled to hold serve with Jankovic, wearing a bright green dress, breaking her orange-clad compatriot 11 times and losing her own serve on eight occasions.
Jankovic, the world number four and runner-up in Rome last week, will play Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues for a place in the quarter-finals.
"Overall, I am not really happy with the way that I played but a win is a win," Jankovic said at a news conference.
"I had quite a lot of trouble in the first set and I didn't serve well and I wasn't really feeling the shots," the 25-year-old former number one added.
"I was quite a long way from where I was playing the past few weeks but then I just tried to stay as positive as possible."
French Open champion in 2008, Ivanovic has won just one Tier II tournament since that breakthrough grand slam triumph and has slipped down the rankings but a run to the Rome semi-finals lifted her to 42nd.
"I don't think either of us played so well today," the 22-year-old said.
"It's always hard to play someone from your own country but it was also a bit hard to find a rhythm.
"I think what made the big difference was that she had a high percentage of first serves in, and that made a big difference in the second and third sets."
Top seed Serena plays Russian Nadia Petrova for a place in the quarter-finals later on Wednesday.
Source: Web Search
0 comments:
Post a Comment