In a match that was hyped up since the Madrid Open draw was released a week ago, the second round battle between Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic ended up having less fight and more fright as both women struggled with nerves throughout the match. But it was Ivanovic who allowed the moment to get to her and let a chance to help her ranking slip away as she lost to Jankovic 6-4, 4-6, 1-6.
Although some criticized tournament promoter Ion Tiriac for giving both Jankovic and Ivanovic, who had deep runs at the Italian Open the previous week, what seemed too lengthy a break before playing on Wednesday, Tiriac probably knew extra time would allow the pre-match hype to build even more, especially coming off comments from both Jankovic and her mother accusing Ivanovic of not caring enough to play for Serbia in their losing Fed Cup tie versus Slovakia a few weeks ago.
But any hopes of seeing “claws” come out today were dashed by the nervous play of both women especially in the first set as both raced through points. After six straight breaks of serve, Ivanovic finally held for 4-3 only for Jankovic to break back. But Jankovic’s inability to hold serve caused her to lose the set 4-6.
Ivanovic seemed ready to take the match as she hit both her serve and forehand with better pace while Jankovic was unable to construct meaningful points, either hitting long or in the net. But after Ivanovic missed a chance to jump out to a 3-0 lead in the second set, her serving woes started again as she lost serve in three straight games after being up 30-0 in each. By the time Jankovic closed out the second set, the visible frustration on Ivanovic’s face was apparent. More errors, 44 in all, creeped into her game while Jankovic finally steadied hers. When down 0-3 in the final set, Ivanovic asked for her coach Heinz Gunthardt for guidance. Ivanovic complained to him she couldn’t see the ball clearly but he commented that she had “choked” away the match. Ivanovic managed to win a game, but it was Jankovic who kept up the steady pressure allowing her to serve out the match 6-1.
The handshake between the two was brief and Jankovic looked relieved the whole thing was over. After the match Jankovic said, “I felt flat and tired but I tried to stay as positive as possible and just played and played to get back into the match.” Meanwhile, Ivanovic offered her own thoughts on her loss by saying, “I don’t think either one of us played well today. It’s hard to play someone from your own country. I think a few points here and there made the difference and made it look a lot different.”
Jankovic will now take on Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues in the next round.
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{ 4 comments }
Don’t know what happened to Ana, she was a set and a break up! Did not like what JJ did at the end – she didn’t play that well to gloat like that.
JJ shouldn’t have done that even if she played like Pete Sampras. Also Ana should stop fist pumping on hers opponents UE’s.
I don’t find Ivanovic’s fist pumps any more annoying than Serena’s screams and roars after (and during) points, or Justine’s very loud “allez”s, or some of Nadal’s hyper fist pumps, not to mention nadal’s obsessive toweling after EVERY SINGLE point. yesterday I saw him ask for the towel after the SECOND point in the match.
AI did not invent the fist pump, so if JJ threw one in there at the end, so what? I agree with Runny, that there is too much of all of that now — the grunts & groans are the most irritating, followed by Nadal picking his shorts out of his butt, followed by his excessively slow pace & constant toweling off, followed by Djokovic’s painfully slow pace & excessive ball bouncing, etc…. They ALL do something irritating, but AI doesn’t need to do a stupid fist pump EVERY time she wins one lousy point, or EVERY time her opponent makes an unforeced error, either… It’s beyond irritating! So the whole JJ fist pump thing is much ado about absolutely nothing at all!
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