JANKOVIC STRUGGLES IN BRISBANE

Jelena Jankovic, once the world no. 1, has had a bad run in the various tournaments of late. She made it to the quarter finals of the Brisbane International after her opponent had to pull out due to an injury.

After just 50 minutes, her opponent Julia Georges had to retire when she was leading the scores 6-1, 3-1. So Jankovic might have been out of the Brisbane International earlier, had it not been for her opponent’s unfortunate injury.

Following this, she proceeded to the quarter finals where she faced the Italian Francesca Schiavone. She started the match well, dominating the first 3 games in the first set. She was up 3-0, but the Italian rallied to get back and broke Jelena’s serve to get the score back to 3-3.

Jankovic lost her lead and fell behind as the Italian rallied brilliantly to get the next break of serve. Score at 4-3, the Italian lost her lead by having two double faults. This came soon after Jelena called her coach on court for a consult. Having won the first set 5-7, Jelena started the next set strongly, just like she did in her first set. But Schiavone wasn’t going to give up the fight. She battled for her breaks of serve.

Jelena was serving for the match at 5-3 (and being backed by thousands of fans placing tennis bets online) when her serve was broken. Soon after, Jelena conceded two match points to lose the set 7-6. Riding high on the victory of the last set, the Italian Schiavone completely dominated the final set, mostly on basis of her serves.

This was bizarre, considering that she had been struggling with her serves in the first two sets. Jelena lost the match 5-7, 7-6, 6-3, but live to fight another day – and will hopefully hit top form in the Australian Open.

Inspite of her form, Jelena Jankovic has just been signed up to be the face of an international sporting brand.