Jankovic Is First Seed To Fall In Beijing

By Robert Martin                 Photo Credit: Mark Peterson / Corleve

(October 1, 2011) With the joint China Open starting on Saturday, women of the WTA started the action off with 10th-seeded Jelena Jankovic being the only seed in action failing to advance. She was defeated by Austrian Tamira Paszek 7-5, 6-4 while the other four seeds progressed in straight sets.

Jankovic has had a troubled season making only two finals this year, in Monterrey where she lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and then in Cincinnati, falling to Maria Sharapova. She has had little success in the grand slams as well, going 6-4, making it past the third round in only one.

The Serbian struggled on serve, hitting five double faults and being broken in six of seven attempts. She attempted to remain in the match using her stronger return game, earning four breaks of her own, but it was not enough. Jankovic had her nose in front repeatedly in the first set, going up a break three times before failing to capitalize.

She expressed concern regarding the conditions, but made no excuses saying, “My opponent played much better. It was very cold and the ball kept flying off my racquet, but it’s the same for both of us and she dealt with the conditions better than I did.”

Drawing possibly the toughest first round match of the day, Andrea Petkovic moved on with a tight 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory over Lucie Safarova. Petkovic gave herself plenty of opportunities to shorten the match, but failed to convert on eight of her 10 break chances.

Other seeded players to win today were Francesca Schiavone, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Roberta Vinci. Also advancing on day one were Petra Cetkovska, Jarmila Gajdosova, and Sofia Arvidsson. Cetkovska provided the crowd with plenty of drama, rallying from a set and 0-4 down against Sara Errani to win after holding off two match points.