JJ Rallies In Opener
Published August 10, 2010 12:00
CINCINNATI, OH, USA - Jelena Jankovic led a trio of players into the last 16 in Cincinnati on Tuesday, rallying past Vera Dushevina at night, 64 36 61.
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Jankovic, the No.1 seed and defending champion at the Premier-level stop, had been pushed to three sets in her last three meetings with Dushevina, even losing one of them - and Tuesday night was no different, as the Russian used her flat, offensive groundstrokes to win the middle set. But Jankovic, ranked No.2 in the world, won 20 of the first 25 points of the third and closed it out.
"I made quite a lot of errors in the first two sets from what I've seen in the stats. There's a stat that shows I had almost 40 errors from those two sets... that's a lot," Jankovic said. "I knew I had to start constructing the points better, wait for my chances and then be aggressive. I was able to finish strong in the third set."
See pics of Jelena and others from Cincinnati in the gallery!
After losing her opening match in San Diego last week, the win - no matter how it was achieved - was a good thing in Jankovic's eyes.
"I'm just happy to be playing here and happy my ankle is okay. I'm happy to be in Cincinnati. I don't have high expectations. I know I can do well. My goal is to get as many matches as possible. The more I play, hopefully the better I'll get."
Next for Jankovic is Akgul Amanmuradova, who won an all-qualifier battle against another Serb, Bojana Jovanovski, quite handily: 62 60.
"The only thing I know about her is she's tall," Jankovic said of Amanmuradova. "She has a big serve. I've never played against her so it will be an interesting match. Hopefully I return well and play my tennis. I want to play the best I can."
In the only other second round match played, No.16 seed Marion Bartoli won a tight first set then rolled to victory over Alona Bondarenko, 76(4) 61. Bartoli could next face No.2 seed Caroline Wozniacki, if the Dane gets past Sybille Bammer on Wednesday, when the rest of the second round is played.
