JANKOVIC PROUD

Jelena Jankovic has congratulated the Serbian national team for making their way into the final of the Davis Cup.

Serbia defeated Canada by 3-2 in the semi final tie played a few days back. Now, they will face Czech Republic in the final.

That final tie will start from 15^th of November and will take place at Belgrade Arena, Belgrade.

In one of her recent interviews, when Jankovic was asked about that semi final clash between Serbia and Canada, she said, “I watched all the matches and I am glad that the team stood up to the expectations. Hopefully, they come on top in the final tie as well and prove that they are better than any other side at the moment.”

This has been a decent season for Jankovic so far. She has been consistent in the last few months and has defeated some higher ranked players. As a result of that, she has recently made her way back into top 10 after a gap of 2 years.

When asked about her performance in the ongoing season, Jankovic said, “I have been trying to make improvements right from the start of the season and I think I have been able to do that. I had come into the season with the target of making it to the top 10 again and now that I have achieved that target, I am looking forward to the masters.”

When asked what she will be doing when she decides to hang her racquets, Jankovic said, “I have got a lot of interest in acting. Designing is also something which I like.”

When asked about Vanja Udovicic who has recently been appointed as the sports minister of Serbia, Jankovic said, “I want to give him my best wishes. Hopefully, he does a lot of good work for sports in our country.”

JANKOVIC MISSES OUT

Jelena Jankovic has been defeated by Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the semi final round of the ongoing Cincinnati Masters. Azarenka won the match in three sets by 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

It was a strange sort of a match. Both the players served extremely poorly and lost their serves on numerous occasions. There were a total of 23 serve breaks in the match.

This was the 8^th match between these two players and Azarenka defeated Jankovic for the 5^th time.

The match went on for just more than a couple of hours.

In the first set, both the players dropped their serve thrice in the first 6 games and the scores were levelled at 3-3 when the 6^th game finished. Finally, there was a serve hold in the 7^th game and it was Jankovic who did that.

The Czech player then broke Azarenka’s serve again in the next game and took a lead of 5-3.

Jankovic dropped her serve in the 9^th game and her lead got reduced to 5-4, but, she made up for that by sneaking 5^th breakthrough in a row in the 10^th game to seal the set by 6-4.

Both the players continued to be loose on their serve in the proceeding set as well. Azarenka was just a little bit better than her opponent as she managed to hold on a couple of times. Jankovic on the other hand couldn’t win even one service game and lost the set by 2-6.

In the decider, Jankovic dropped her entire serves again and ended up getting knocked out of the tournament.

In the final match, Azarenka will face the no. 1 player in the world Serena Williams.

Azarenka’s record against Serena is horrible. She has lost 80% of the matches that she has played against the American superstar so far.

JANKOVIC LOSES OUT

Jelena Jankovic has been defeated by her countrywoman Vesna Dolonc in the second round of the Wimbledon Championships. Dolonc won the match in the straight sets by 7-5, 6-2.

It was a huge surprise. Jankovic had entered this competition in decent form and she was expected to get better of Dolonc with ease. But, that wasn’t the case to be. She got completely outfoxed and suffered the humiliation of straight set defeat against a player who is much lower in world rankings than her.

Dolonc didn’t need too much time to knock her compatriot out of the competition. She won the match in just one and half hours.

Dolonc hit a total of 17 winners in the match. Jankovic also hit 13 winners, but, with that, she also committed 26 unforced errors which neutralised the affect of those winners.

Dolonc didn’t have an impressive start in the opening set. In the second game, she gifted Jankovic a couple of break points. Jankovic capitalized on one of them and took a lead of 2-0.

However, Dolonc bounced back immediately and with a breakthrough in the very next game, she reduced Jankovic’s lead to 2-1. A serve hold for Dolonc in the next game equalized the scores.

Dolonc dropped her serve again in the 6^th game to get trailed by 2-4. The next two games went with the serve and when the 8^th game finished, the score was 5-3 in the favour of Jankovic.

Jankovic just needed to serve out the 9^th game to seal the opener, but, she couldn’t do that. Dolonc broke her serve twice successively (in the 9^th and the 11^th game) and won the next 4 games on the trot to clinch the set by 7-5.

In the second set, Dolonc came all guns blazing. She got a breakthrough in the very first game and was off to a lead of 2-0.

There were no breakthroughs in the next 4 games and at the end of the 6^th game; Dolonc was leading by 4-2.

Jankovic dropped her serve again in the 7^th game which took Dolonc ahead by 5-2. The 23 years old just had to serve out the next game to pull off the win and she made no mistake in doing that.

In the third round, Dolonc will take on the Belgian player Kirsten Flipkens who defeated Bojana Jovanovski in the second round.

JANKOVIC DEFEATS MURGURUZA

Jelena Jankovic has defeated Garbine Muguruza of Spain in the second round of the French Open. Jankovic won the match in the straight sets by 6-3, 6-0.

Jankovic who has been given 18^th seed in this tournament looked a bit out of touch in the first few games of the match, but, after that, she gathered her focus and played some tremendous shots to take her opponent apart.

In the post match interview, Jankovic said, “It’s nice to secure a big win in the first round match. It will set the tone nicely for the upcoming matches. I started a bit tentatively today, but, I tried to stay composed and managed to pulled thing back.  I am glad with my performance today.”

On the other hand, Muguruza was disheartened after losing the match. She said, “I got a fantastic start and I should have capitalized on that. But, I gave away too many easy points after that and lost the plot. It really hurts to end up on the losing side after having such a good start.”

In the first set, Jankovic started poorly. She dropped her serve in the 2^nd game and lost the first three games in a row to get trailed by 0-3.

But, after that, Jankovic didn’t give her Spanish opponent any opportunity whatsoever. With the help of three serve breaks, she bagged the next 6 games successively and sealed the set by 6-3.

In the following set, Jankovic was even more aggressive. She got five break chances in that set and she cashed on three of them to register a bagel and wrap up the match.

In the next round, Jankovic will face the winner of the match between Samantha Stosur of Australia and Kristina Mladenovic of France.

JANKOVIC DEFEATS STOSUR

Jelena Jankovic has defeated Samantha Stosur of Australia in the first round of Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 2013. Jankovic won the match in the straight sets by 6-4, 6-4. The match went on for just 96 minutes.

The outcome of the match was surprising. It wasn’t expected as Stosur was higher in world rankings than Jankovic. But, Jankovic put up a great show on the clay courts of Stuttgart and knocked the Australian player out of the competition.

In the post match interview, Jankovic said, “Sam is a very good player on the clay courts and the last time I had played against her on clay courts, she had defeated me. So, that was in the back of my mind. I knew it would be tough for me, but, thankfully, I was in good touch today and the match went in my favour.”

“It always boosts your confidence when you win against a player who is in top 10 in the world rankings. This is certainly the kind of start that I needed. Hopefully, things will go well for me in the further matches as well.”

On the other hand, Stosur was looking totally frustrated. The Australian super star said, “It was really a tough day for me. I didn’t serve well at all and probably didn’t deserve to win.”

“I hadn’t expected myself to be out from the first round, but, it happens sometimes. I will keep working hard and will bounce back in the upcoming tournaments.”

Jankovic broke Stosur’s serve a couple of times in the match, once in each set.

In the first set, the Serbian player got the breakthrough in the 9^th game and then, wrapped up the set by winning her next service game.

In the second set, Stosur dropped her serve in the 3^rd game and never managed to come back after that. Jankovic held her remaining serve and made her way into the second round quite comfortably.

In the second round, Jankovic will face the local girl Sabine Lisicki.

DUVAL NEXT

Jelena Jankovic will play against Victoria Duval of USA in the second round of the Sony Open on Friday. That will be her opening match in the tournament as she has been given a bye in the first round.

In this season, Jankovic’s performance hasn’t been great so far. She has participated in four tournaments in this season and in three of them, her performance was not up to the mark.

The first tournament in which Jankovic took part this year was Apia International Sydney Tennis Tournament. She got knocked out from the second round of that tournament.

Australian Open was the next tournament for Jankovic. Her performance was below par in that tournament as well. She only managed to reach the third round where she was defeated by her countrywoman Ana Ivanovic.

After performing poorly in her first couple of tournaments in the season, Jankovic came back in her next tournament i.e. WTA Bogota Open tennis championship. She went on to win that competition by securing win over Paula Ormaechea of Argentina. That was the 13^th title won by Jankovic in her career.

Jankovic couldn’t maintain her form in the BNP Paribas Open and got defeated in the second round there.

Duval who will be Jankovic’s opponent on Friday is currently at no. 376 in the official rakings of WTA. She is only 17 years of age and she has not faced too many quality players in her career so far. So, the match against Jankovic will be a huge challenge for her.

When asked if she is excited about Friday’s clash against Jankovic, Duval said, “Yes, off course. I have nothing to lose. I will just go out on the court and enjoy my game.”

“Jelena has been around for more than 10 years now. She has got a whole lot of experience and to face her will be a very hard task for a youngster like me. I am just hoping for the best.”