Sunday, January 25, 2009

Australian Open - Women: Jankovic crashes out

Top seed Jelena Jankovic was knocked out of the fourth round of the Australian Open by France's Marion Bartoli.

TENNIS Serbia's Jelena Jankovic reacts after losing a point to France's Marion Bartoli during their match at the Australian Open - 0

The Frenchwoman capitalised on the Serbian's poor service game and blasted winners at every opportunity before she ended the world number one's misery 6-1 6-4 in just 82 minutes.

The unconventional Bartoli, who despite being right handed plays two handed off both sides, had not advanced beyond the Australian Open second round in seven previous attempts.

The 16th seed set up a quarter-final against seventh seed Vera Zvonareva, who beat fellow Russian Nadia Petrova 7-5 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the first time.

Zvonareva won the first set when the 10th-seeded Petrova dropped her serve in the 11th game on a double-fault and then broke her immediately at the start of the second.

Zvonareva, seeded seventh at Melbourne Park this year, has not made a grand slam quarter-final since the 2003 French Open.

Bartoli, blasting winners from both sides off the baseline, jumped out to a 4-0 first set lead and, while Jankovic held three break points in the fifth game, the Frenchwoman held her nerve to take a 5-0 lead.

She held two set points in the sixth game but Jankovic was finally able to hold her serve.

The 16th seed, however, was not to be denied the first set, which she clinched with a delicate drop push that left the scrambling Jankovic wafting at thin air.

The Serb won just 13 points on her own serve in the first set, but losing the set seemed to wake Jankovic up, although both players struggled with their serve in the second, each breaking the other twice in the first eight games.

Bartoli hung tough, however, securing her fifth break of the match and booking her place in the quarter-finals after rifling a backhand cross-court winner past a deflated Jankovic.

Russian world number three Dinara Safina almost followed Jankovic out of the tournament but saved two match points and won the last five games in an extraordinary comeback to beat French teenager Alize Cornet 6-2 2-6 7-5.

Cornet was on the verge of a huge upset when she recovered from losing the first to lead 5-2 in the third when her game suddenly fell apart under a ferocious attack from Safina.

Cornet twice failed to serve out the match and squandered two match points in the 10th game as Safina turned up the heat to snatch victory.

Safina, whose brother Marat Safin saved a match point in the semi-finals against Roger Federer before winning the Australian Open men's singles title in 2005, will play Australia's Jelena Dokic in the quarter-finals.

Dokic won a dramatic match against number 29 seed Alisa Kleybanova 7-5 5-7 8-6 in the Rod Laver Arena to continue her fairytale tournament.

The 25-year-old suffered a twisted ankle late in the deciding set, but somehow mustered the resolve to break Kleybanova in the 14th game and win the match to send the partisan home crowd wild.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Australian Open

Live Streaming » Australian Open

Sports Live » Australian Open Live Streaming

Australian Open Live Stream