Top seed Jelena Jankovic confidently advanced at the Toray Pan Pacific Open, while fellow Serb Ana Ivanovic, seeded second, lost the first match she played after her shocking defeat at the US Open.
Jelena Jankovic cruised past Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-2 6-1 to book her place in the Tokyo quarterfinals where she’ll face fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia who defeated Japan’s Ayumi Morita 6-1 6-1.
Current number two in the world, Jankovic, has a chance to return to the top of the rankings if she wins the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
Ana Ivanovic was upset by Nadia Petrova 6-1 1-6 6-2. Not a great promotion of her new Yonex racquet.
In the first set Ivanovic’s serve was broken three times, while she herself earned no break points. The second set was the same story, only the players exchanged their roles. The world number 20 Petrova pressured unprepared Ivanovic in the decider and the Serb succumbed after an hour and 41 minutes.
The world number three will now fly to Beijing for next week’s China Open.
Arrrrrgh! about Ana’s loss. I hope she regains her form soon. I don’t expect her to win titles for the rest of the year, but I’d be content to see her reach the semifinals at least.