Jankovic to face Serena after outplaying Venus
Source: Agencies |
May 8, 2010, Saturday
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TWO-TIME champion Jelena Jankovic rolled to a surprisingly easy 6-0, 6-1 win over Venus Williams on Thursday and prevented an all-Williams semifinal at the Italian Open.
Williams struggled with her serve and never really threatened on a cool evening at the Foro Italico.
In the other half of the draw, former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic beat 14th-seeded Nadia Petrova 6-2, 7-5 and will face 26th-ranked Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain, who beat Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (6), 6-4.
Venus was returning from a month out due to right knee tendinitis and committed 11 unforced errors to Jankovic's one in the first set alone. She also trailed 48-71 in first-serve percentage, hitting two costly double faults on one occasion to hand Jankovic a 4-1 lead in the second.
Jankovic won this clay-court warmup for the French Open in 2007 and 2008. She entered with a 5-5 career record against Venus and was not expecting such an easy match.
"Of course not. I had so many tough matches against Venus," Jankovic said. "It's great to win -- 6-0, 6-1 is really unbelievable."
Top-ranked Serena Williams is up next for Jankovic.
"When you play against a Williams you can't relax at all, you just have to go out there and it give it your best," the Serb said.
Serena had been out with a left knee injury since winning the Australian Open in January.
In Munich, Philipp Petzschner of Germany rallied yesterday to eliminate defending champion Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 and reach the semifinals of the BMW Open.
Two-time runner-up Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, who lost last year's final to Berdych, eased into the last four by defeating Jiri Hajek of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-3.
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