Jankovic reaches fourth round at Wimbledon, survives Safarova challenge

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Wilson Blade 9

Third seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia had a difficult third round match against Czech 25th seed Lucie Safarova, but eventually won 5-7 7-6 6-2 . Jankovic lost the first set 5-7, and had to play a tiebreak in the frustrating 75-minute second set to stay in the match. She won the tiebreak 7-4 after which there was a rain delay. Jankovic seemed to have benefited from the rain; when the play was resumed she won the decider 6-2.

The match was really exciting. World No. 25 Safarova had strong and precise forehands, and luck was definitely on her side in the first two sets. Many of her shots ended up in the court, when no one expected that could happen. Especially interesting was the shot when the ball landed on the net — everyone was sure that it would end up in Safarova’s side of the court, and even Jankovic didn’t approach the net thinking it was a point for her, but then the ball, after that “indecisiveness”, turned to Jankovic’s side of the court and Safarova got the point.

During the first two sets Jankovic often seemed hopeless, and her body gestures showed that she didn’t know how to beat her opponent. In contrast, Safarova looked strong, and everything she did produced results.

To sum up, Safarova played amazing, but she couldn’t keep her rhythm during a match that long.

Jelena Jankovic will next play No. 18 seed Marion Bartoli of France, who beat Israel’s Shahar Peer in the third round.

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