World No.4 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia successfully defended a title for the first time in her career with a 6-2 6-2 victory over French qualifier Alize Cornet, ranked 34th in the world.
Fourth-seeded Jankovic was dominant throughout the final. She established a 5-1 lead in the first set, and although Cornet pulled a break back, Jankovic immediately broke back to take the opening set. The second set was the same story. The 18-year-old Frenchwoman even broke into tears at 4-1 down while Jankovic took a pause to have treatment on her right shoulder. Cornet, who scored victories over Svetlana Kuznetsova and Anna Chakvetadze on her way to the final, held her next service game and then earned three break points on Jankovic’s serve but the champion saved them all and went on to break again to claim the Internazionali BNL d’Italia title.
Winning in Rome, the 23-year-old Jankovic took home her sixth career WTA title and her first since winning in Birmingham at the DFS Classic last year in June. Also, she earned $196,900.
In the next rankings, Jankovic will move to No.3, and Cornet, who played only her second WTA final, is expected to make her Top 30 debut, improving to around No.22.
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Cornet did tremendously well to get to the final, but exhaustion and nerves probably got the better of her.
Sad to see her break into tears during the injury time out, i’m sure she’s learned a lot from this run in the tournament and is going to be one to watch out or.
“watch out for” i mean
Yes, daryl, it was definitely a great experience for her, and she has nothing to regret. She made a fantastic result, and I believe she shouldn’t be sad.