Fourth seed Jelena Jankovic had a tough opening match at the US Open against world No.96 Simona Halep of Romania. As Jankovic said, she wasn’t playing her best tennis, but was able to get through.
The 2008 US Open finalist Jankovic lost the first set and found the 18-year-old Halep serving for the match at 5-4 in the decider. Halep was actually two points away from victory, but Jankovic then broke her serve and won all the remaining games to advance to the second round. Final score: 4-6 6-4 7-5.
Halep made her Grand Slam debut at this year’s French Open and lost in the first round as well.
Seed No.11 Svetlana Kuznetsova was pushed to three sets, 6-2 4-6 6-1, in her first round match against Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm, whose last match in the US Open’s main draw prior to her this year’s appearance was a loss in the first round in 1996.
Kateryna Bondarenko sent home eighth-seeded Li Na with a 2-6 6-4 6-2 victory. Li, who reached at least the fourth round in her last three appearances at the US Open, blamed the heat for the defeat and her inability to cope with it. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
Jelena played bad, her serve was horrible! I hope she’ll get herself together, ’cause with that game she won’t pass R2 or 3… 🙁
That was the worst I’ve ever seen her play. She was lucky to get through that match. Had her opponent not struggle in the heat she would have lost that match. I think she will struggle in the next match against a former talent, Lucic.
I do see her losing in the second round. She has had a terrible summer. Maybe she is all boyfriend material. 😛 However my predictions have been bad.
Let’s wait and see. I hope she won’t lose.
Well, she made it but it was so-so. She can thank Lucic for handing her points thanks to her double faults. Had she been less tensed I don’t think Jelena would be a winner today. She really got lucky a lot.