Fuente : Wimbledon
http://www.wimbledon.org

WIMBLEDON: Jankovic Sweeps Past Argentine

/noticias.info/ Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Jelena Jankovic flew the flag for Serbia and Montenegro this afternoon after sweeping aside Argentina's Mariana Diaz-Oliva in blistering temperatures.

By now you would have expected both players to have become used to the heat of the past three days but it was clearly affecting them. Both failed to hold their opening service games and appeared lethargic and slow.

At the beginning of the week the Women's Tennis Association had tipped the Serbian as a potential threat to top-ranked players - the No.17 seed reached the final of Edgbaston a couple of weeks ago.

But Jankovic's performance today would not have been good enough against the big guns. She made too many unforced errors. Both women also failed to approach the net enough. At one point they did try - when Jankovic was leading 4-2 in the first. Both women headed for the service box on consecutive points, but they took it in turns to miss basic volleys.

So it was back to the baseline for most of the match. At 5-2 down, Diaz-Oliva, who at 29 is nearly a decade older than her opponent, appeared to wilt. Despite valiant attempts to save two set points she subsequently lost the set 6-3.

A change of ends followed and the players sought refuge in the shade of umbrellas. However, it was not long before Jankovic found herself 5-3 up. Evidently, somebody was looking down favourably on the Argentine, who professes to change around her lucky charms every week. At 5-4 down she managed to save a handful of match points to level the set at 5-5.

But Jankovic then broke her seasoned opponent and eventually took the match 6-3, 7-5. She now finds herself in the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career.

Written by Helen Gilbert


Court 4 - Ladies' Singles - 2nd Round
Mariana Diaz-Oliva ARG 3 5
Jelena Jankovic SCG (17) 6 7 notas_de_prensa_archivo