Serbian world No.137 Jovana Jaksic is having a dream run at the $500,000 Abierto Monterrey in Mexico, first making her first career WTA quarterfinals, then proceeding to reach the semis and stepping up one more time to reach her first WTA final where she will face none other than her established compatriot Ana Ivanovic.
The 20-year-old Jaksic saved three match points against Thai Luksika Kumkhum to reach the final eight, then defeated fellow quarterfinal debutante American Julia Boserup and in the semis outlasted 23 years her senior Kimiko Date Krumm 6-7(5) 6-4 6-4 to set up a clash with second seed Ana Ivanovic, who won the battle of two former No.1s against Caroline Wozniacki.
In the first set, Ivanovic survived Wozniacki’s 3/3 conversion of break points and won the set in the tiebreak which featured 9 breaks of 12 points played, while in the second set she stormed to a 4-0 lead and even though Wozniacki managed to approach all the way back to 4-4, Ivanovic celebrated the victory 7-6(5) 6-4 in her nice blue Adidas Adizero spring dress.
It will be the first meeting of Jaksic and Ivanovic and as they said on Twitter, the winner will pay for the dinner. That should not take a toll on the winner’s wallet, since the champion will receive a $111,389 prize.
Reminder: Remember when Jaksic recently saved 14 match points against Tamira Paszek to win her 14th ITF title?
Congrats to Ana. She really is getting her groove back 🙂 Maybe another Grand Slam in the horizon?
Marija, who were your countrymen rooting for? Either way, this is good for Serbian tennis.
Cheers,
Ashley
AfricanTennisNow, it may seem like a diplomatic answer, but we rooted for them both 🙂