Jankovic bests Sam for second straight year
24 Feb 2012
Former world No.1 Jelena Jankovic returned to somewhere nearer her best form on Thursday to upset Samantha Stosur and reach the semifinals of the Dubai Open in her adopted home city.
It is the eighth-seeded Serb's first sem-final of the year and also her best win for 12 months as she beat the fourth-seeded US Open champion from Australia 6-4 6-2.
Jankovic defeated Stosur at the same stage of the Dubai event last year, albeit in three tough sets and after coming down from 1-4 in the third.
Having not faced Stosur since that match until Thursday, the Serbian took her career head-to-head record over Stosur to five wins and two losses.
Jankovic achieved it despite a slowly healing muscle tear in her left thigh which, she says, was originally 5.5cm long.
She mostly adopted a more assertive style than she once had, controlling more of the rallies, and reducing the amount of court she needed to cover.
Stosur, by contrast, appeared subdued, looked travel-weary, and sounded as if she might be suffering from a cold.
"I felt flat, and maybe it is all catching up with me," said Stosur, referring to the travel from Australia to Switzerland for the Fed Cup, and then to the Middle East.
"But I can't make that an excuse.
"She played all right. She served quite well. I felt like I was getting pushed back.
"I think today she stayed up on the baseline quite well and I didn't."
Stosur nevertheless felt that this week and last (in Doha), which brought five wins in the Middle East, is an improvement on her recent form which has yet to deliver another title since her great triumph in New York in September.
Jankovic suggested she looked to attack Stosur's serve.
"It's never easy. Against her, we always have tough matches," Jankovic said.
"I tried to make as many returns as possible, because her serve is one of the best, if not the best in the game, and it is not a typical serve.
"I was trying to read it and lean to one side a little earlier. I think I did that pretty well and was in control much of the time."
Jankovic will now play Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, who dropped only three games in trouncing Germany's Sabine Lisicki.
Tags: dubai, Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Jelena Jankovic, Sam Stosur, UAE, WTA
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
