TENNIS in DEPTH.

Jankovic joins Venus in the final 16……

by on Jun.25, 2010, under Jelena Jankovic, Marion Bartoli, Venus Williams, Vera Zvonareva

 Jelena Jankovic was in no mood to dally. She won in straight sets against the 28th-seed, Russia’s Alona Bondarenko, in 57 minutes.

Jankovic completed a first-set whitewash in double-quick time before shrugging off a knee problem and a revitalised opponent to win 6-0 6-4.

She had beaten Bondarenko in 10 of their previous 11 meetings and began their latest joust almost flawlessly.

Jankovic hit 12 winners and made just three unforced errors as she wrapped up the first set in 14 minutes.

The 6-4 6-2 score-line might suggest otherwise, but five-time champion Venus Williams was made to work hard for her third-round win over Alisa Kleybonova.

Kleybonova, a 20-year-old Muscovite who hits the ball with an almighty wallop, stunned Williams by racing into a 3-1 first-set lead.

Williams hit back in typically powerful fashion, breaking twice to win the set.

But Kleybonova stretched her feted opponent all the way in a second set lasting a minute short of an hour.

The Serb, who is seeded fourth, will now play Vera Zvonareva of Russia, who beat Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer 6-4 6-2.

“I’m happy with the way I’m playing,” said Jankovic, who has never been beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon. “Especially today, in that first set I played really well. That’s the game I would like to play. That’s the real me.

“It’s something I’ve been working on for a while: trying to play more aggressively, serving well, and playing very well in the returning games and coming to the net. I think I did pretty well today overall. I hope I can continue like that.”

Jankovic was earlier joined in the fourth round by the 11th seed Marion Bartoli, who won in straight sets against the Hungarian Greta Arn.

Bartoli, who lost to Venus Williams in the 2007 final and is seeded 11th this time round, completed a comfortable win, 6-3 6-4, in exactly 90 minutes.

The Frenchwoman, who reached the last four in the warm-up event at Eastbourne, has yet to concede a set.

Bartoli will play Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova for a place in the quarter finals. Pironkova was leading 6-4 2-0 when an injury forced her opponent, the Russian Regina Kulikova, to retire.

:, , , ,

Leave a Reply

*


Tennis in Depth

Subscribe