KUZNETSOVA SNEAKS THROUGH

Jelena Jankovic has been defeated by Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open. Kuznetsova won the match by 0-6, 6-2, 7-5.

The way Kuznetsova had played in the opening set, very few people would have expected her to dominate in the next two sets. But, the Russian player did that. She looked a completely different player after losing the first set.

After winning the match, Kuznetsova said, “I was an underdog in this match. So, there was not much pressure on me. In the opening set, things went terribly wrong for me, but, I remained calm and just tried to play positively in the next two sets.”

This was Kuznetsova’s 12^th match against Jankovic. She had lost 6 out of the last 11 matches, and had come into the match as the underdog, with Unibet offering online betting odds of as large as 4/1 on her winning as various stages of the match.

In the first set, it was all about the Serbian veteran Jelena Jankovic. She wrapped up the set in no time by winning the first 6 games on the trot.

In the second set, Jankovic suddenly lost her concentration and she had a disastrous start. She dropped her serve in the 2^nd game and got down by 0-2. In the next five games, neither of the two players got a breakthrough and at the end of the 7^th game, Kuznetsova had a lead of 5-2.

A breakthrough for Kuznetsova in the 8^th game made sure that the match would go into the third set.

In the final set, both the players were playing quite well till the end of the 11^th game. There were no breakthroughs till then and the score was 6-5 in Kuznetsova’s favour.

Kuznetsova broke Jankovic’s serve in the 12^th game and sealed the decider by 7-5 to cruise into the third round.

In the next round, Kuznetsova’s opponent will be Marion Bartoli of France.