A trophy-less Jankovic

Jelena Jankovic has been beaten in the Round of 16 in Tianjin Open by the local girl Zheng Saisai.

The 20-year old youngster won in the straight sets against the Serbian player who was given the first seed in the tournament.

There is a gap of 98 places between the rankings of Jankovic and Zheng. So, this can be considered a huge upset.

Jankovic has been trophy less this season. She would have come to China hoping for silverware, but, it wasn’t to be.

Zheng pushed Jankovic on the back foot in the opening game itself as she broke her serve to lead by 1-0.

But, the Chinese player could not build on that advantage as in the second game, she also lost serve and things were levelled.

But, Jankovic kept making mistakes on her serve and kept giving her opponent the breakthrough opportunities. With two more breaks in the set, Zheng sealed the opener.

Both the players started the second set in a circumspect way, but, in the 4th game, Zheng took charge.

With some aggressive hits, the youngster was able to draw the first blood in the set. She, then, held her serve and broke for the second consecutive time i.e. in the 6th game to make the score 5-1.

Jankovic reduced the margin a little bit with a late breakthrough in the 8th game, but, a serve hold immediately after that did the trick for Zheng and she managed to secure probably her biggest victory ever.

Zheng’s opponent in the quarters would be Sorana Cirstea, a 24-year old from Romania, who is also ranked quite low in the world rankings, not as low as Zheng (no. 112) though.

Cirstea is just inside top 100. She is ranked 93rd.

Soderling And Nadal To Live In Memory

Whenever the list of the biggest upsets created in the history of the lawn tennis is made, the fourth round match between Robin Soderling and Richard Gasquet in the 2009 French Open would come in top 5. It’s a match which a keen follower of tennis would perhaps never forget in his life. Rafael Nadal had actually got defeated in that match. Yes, you read that right. Nadal got defeated at Roland Garros and the man to do that was a young man from the United States of America who all of a sudden became the most threatening player in the world after that day.

Although Soderling didn’t win that edition of the French Open but, in the next Grand Slam that he took part in, he was one of the hot favourites to lift the trophy. The support that he got in his first match that he played at Flushing Meadows that year was enormous and it was a sign that he had become the new superstar of the tennis world. But, as they say, nothing changes quicker than the fortunes. The same happened with Soderling. His fortunes took a complete U-turn.

During the middle of that US Open, Soderling was hit by a unique kind of illness because of which he had to get himself aside from the tournament. And most of the people would not believe, but, since then, he has not featured even once in the professional arena. Yes, not even once. It’s been 3 years now and he is still not fit enough to compete.

It’s hugely disappointing that a player of such calibre who could have made this modern era of tennis so much more competitive has to remain away from the game because of illness. It’s heartbreaking for the fans.

Jankovic To Face Keys

Jelena Jankovic will be locking horns with Madison Keys of USA tomorrow in the opening round of the AEGON International Tennis Tournament.

Jankovic is one of those players who are not comfortable playing on grass at all. Her overall record on the green surfaces is quite ordinary.

In her 14-year long professional career so far, the Serbian has not entered the Round of 8 in the Wimbledon Championships even once which is enough to suggest how she has performed on grass over the years.

Jankovic’s numbers in Eastbourne where the AEGON International is to be played are even poorer. The veteran player has not won even a single match at that venue. She’s been there in that tournament on a couple of occasions in the past and on both those occasions; she got knocked out from the first round. In 2005, she was defeated by the Belgian Kim Clijsters, while, in 2009, Anna Chakvetadze of Russia showed her the exit door.

While talking to the reporters yesterday, Jankovic admitted that she was a bit weak on the grassy surfaces.

The Serbian said, “My performance has been the worst on grass and I am fully aware of it. Things happen quickly on grass than any other court. You need to keep up with the pace of the surface which I haven’t done so far. But, whenever I play on grass, I try to enjoy myself. That’s very important for you to do as a player.”

As far as Keys is concerned, she is a rapidly rising player who has come a long way since turning professional back in 2009. She is presently at the 40th position in the world rankings. She is quite capable of pulling off an upset against Jankovic especially on grass. So, it’s hard to pick a favourite here.