Jelena Jankovic was hoping to take one step closer to a final clash with Venus Williams but she ended up falling two steps short on Friday night, losing to Aravane Rezai in straight sets in the quarterfinals.Although Jankovic had won both of her previous meetings with Rezai the last one was a squeaker, as she had to rally from 1-3 in the third set to win in Dubai this year. This time Rezai converted on those opportunities - eventually.
Leading 5-3 in the first set, Rezai had three set points but lost them all. Leading 5-4 she had two more but again, couldn't convert. Finally, after breaking serve in an 11-deuce 11th game she served that first set out, 7-5. The hard-hitting Rezai got a crucial break of serve in the fifth game of the second set and held serve the rest of the way to complete a 75 64 upset over the No.7 seed.
"I just kept fighting, especially at the end of the first set. I had a lot of set points. It was tough for me to see her keep coming back. It was important to win the 6-5 game," Rezai said. "I will try to fight like that in the semifinals. It's another day. I'll enjoy my win today and will think about my next match tomorrow."
"To be honest, I've never played a player who hits every ball like that," Jankovic said. "Some players hit the ball really hard, but no one hits every single ball like that. Doesn't matter if it's a high ball or a low ball. It was tough to read."
Rezai, who beat Justine Henin this week too, got her third career Top 10 win, having beaten Maria Sharapova and Dinara Safina.
The No.4-ranked Jankovic would have returned to No.3 this week by winning the title. Having reached 400 professional match wins with her third round victory, Jankovic's career record fell to a clean 400-200 with her loss to Rezai.
Rezai will play Lucie Safarova in an all-unseeded semifinal on Saturday, after Safarova's 61 16 64 upset over No.16 seed Nadia Petrova earlier in the day. Rezai and Safarova are tied 1-1 in their head-to-head series.
In the other two quarterfinals, No.4 seed Venus Williams defeated No.8 seed Samantha Stosur, 63 63, and Shahar Peer outlasted No.13 seed Li Na, 64 36 64. Williams leads Peer 4-0 in their head-to-head series.
Williams is the only seeded player in the final four here. Peer, Rezai and Safarova are all ranked in the 21-30 range and just missed out on the seedings.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Singles - Quarterfinals
Aravane Rezai (FRA) d. (7) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) 75 64
(4) Venus Williams (USA) d. (8) Samantha Stosur (AUS) 63 63
Shahar Peer (ISR) d. (13) Li Na (CHN) 64 36 64
Lucie Safarova (CZE) d. (16) Nadia Petrova (RUS) 61 16 64
No comments:
Post a Comment