The Hindu : Sport : Jankovic dethrones Serena Williams

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Wednesday, Jan 23, 2008
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Sport

Jankovic dethrones Serena Williams

Nirmal Shekar

Bhupathi-Sania upset second seeds; Sharapova stuns Henin, Nadal meets Tsonga

— Photo: AFP

FANTASTIC RUN: Jelena Jankovic overcame a pain barrier to eliminate defending champion Serena Williams and move a step closer to her maiden Grand Slam singles crown.

Melbourne: They are their small country’s best known exports after raspberries. And, on a tennis court, Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic make their opponents see red — hardly as mouth-watering a prospect for their rivals as those flamingly sweet berries might be.

This week at the Australian Open, all three of them might line up in the semifinals, an extraordinary achievement for a strife-torn nation of just over 10 million people.

On Tuesday, a day when India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza upset the second seeded pair of Simon Aspelin and Lisa Raymond 6-3, 2-6, 10-7 to make the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles event, Jankovic moved ahead confidently — patiently negotiating her way past a listless Serena Williams, the defending champion, in the sort of match that might have forced a connoisseur to switch channels.

Jankovic, who barely survived on the opening day of the championship against the Austrian Tamira Paszek, winning 12-10 in the third after several heart-stopping moments, advanced to her first Australian Open semifinal with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over the American.

Authoritarian display

The Serbian third seed will take on the fifth seeded Maria Sharapova in the semifinals. The Russian diva played some of the most authoritarian hardcourt tennis of her career to beat the top seeded Justine Henin of Belgium 6-4, 6-0 in the first match of the night session.

After taking the first set on her fourth setpoint in the 10th game, Sharapova blanked the world champion in the second in a stunning exhibition of attacking tennis.

On Wednesday, Ivanovic, who takes on Venus Williams in the quarterfinals, and Djokovic, who plays the Spaniard David Ferrer, will have the chance to join Jankovic in the semifinals.

Asked if this was her best win in a Grand Slam event, Jankovic, who has complained of aches and niggles in several parts of her body, said, “It probably is, because defeating a defending champion and a champion like Serena is something that doesn’t happen every day.”

Serena was a strangely wilted version of the all-conquering champion who handed out a humiliating defeat to Maria Sharapova in the final last year. She did not serve anywhere near her best and her demeanour suggested that it was one of those days when she’d much rather have been swanning down a red carpet with a Gucci handbag in her arm.

The match did not make for a pretty picture. Serena lost serve seven times and hit 36 unforced errors. Her Serbian opponent lost serve four times and made 17 unforced errors.

Jankovic made a confident start, opening up a 3-2 first set lead with a break. Then, in the ninth game, serving to stay in the set, Serena netted a simple forehand volley to lose it.

In the second, Jankovic, who broke to 5-3, failed to serve out the match but closed things out on her first matchpoint in the next game on Serena’s serve as the American’s forehand sailed wide. “I was so shaking. Then I got to matchpoint and I was like ‘Hold your racquet in your hand and just try to hit it.’ Somehow I won the point,” said Jankovic.

Somehow that match got done. It was unlikely that anybody at the Rod Laver Arena regretted that it got over in two sets. “I wasn’t moving the way I wanted to. I definitely didn’t have the right shot selection,” said Serena.

Amazingly, for a player who has won three Grand Slam titles in a row on clay at the French Open and has appeared in successive Wimbledon finals, Rafael Nadal is yet to make a mark in a hardcourt Grand Slam event.

Here this week, Nadal has a great chance to correct that record. The second seeded Spaniard raced past Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 in two hours and 19 minutes, on Tuesday, to become the first men’s semifinalist. The match featured a single critical phase late in the first set. Serving in the 10th game, Nadal was down 15-40. He calmly did a bit of repair work, fought off two setpoints to hold to 5-5, hit a forehand winner to break to 6-5 and then hit cruise mode.

Climactic surge

Bhupathi and Sania dominated the first set before Raymond and Aspelin fought back to knot up the match.

In the tiebreak, the Indian pair opened up a 6-1 lead before losing the next six points in a row. But Bhupathi at the net clinched the next two points before a Sania lob gave the Indians their first matchpoint which they converted without fuss.

Yuki in third round

In the boys’ singles event, India’s Yuki Bhambri, seeded eight, made the third round with an impressive come-from-behind victory. He beat the Slovakian Zalan Klempe 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

THE RESULTS

Men’s singles: Quarterfinals: 2-Rafael Nadal (Esp) bt 24-Jarkko Nieminen (Fin) 7-5, 6-3, 6-1; Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) bt 14-Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) 7-5, 6-0, 7-6(6).

Women’s singles: Quarterfinals: 3-Jelena Jankovic (Srb) bt 7-Serena Williams (USA) 6-3, 6-4; 5-Maria Sharapova (Rus) bt 1-Justine Henin (Bel) 6-4, 6-0.

Men’s doubles: Quarterfinals: 7-Arnaud Clement & Michael Llodra (Fra) bt 2-Daniel Nestor (Can) & Nenad Zimonjic (Srb) 6-4, 6-4; Jeff Coetzee & Wesley Moodie (RSA) bt 4-Martin Damm & Pavel Vizner (Cze) 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.

Women’s doubles: Quarterfinals: Alona Bondarenko & Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukr) bt 1-Cara Black (Zim) & Liezel Huber (USA) 6-3, 6-2; 12-Victoria Azarenka (Blr) & Shahar Peer (Isr) bt 13-Janette Husarova (Svk) & Flavia Pennetta (Ita) 6-1, 6-1; 7-Yan Zi & Zheng Jie (Chn) bt Serena & Venus Williams (USA) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Boys’ singles: Second round: 10-Yang Tsung-hua (Tpe) bt Karunuday Singh (Ind) 7-6(4), 6-4; 8-Yuki Bhambri (Ind) bt Zalan Klempa (Svk) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Mixed doubles: Second round: Mahesh Bhupathi & Sania Mirza (Ind) bt 2-Lisa Raymond (USA) & Simon Aspelin (Swe) 6-3, 2-6, 10-7.