Jankovic Suffers Another Early Loss at Brussels Open

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Jankovic Suffers Another Early Loss at Brussels Open

By Erik Gudris

Photo Credit: Virginie Lefour/AFP/GettyImages

(May 21st, 2012) The only consistency Jelena Jankovic is finding these days on clay are her frequent opening round exits from tournaments.

Former World No. 1 Jankovic, who began the clay court season with a second round loss to Venus Williams in Charleston, concluded her preparation before Roland Garros with yet another hard-fought early round match that she ended up on the losing side of.

At the Brussels Open, the No. 6 seed Jankovic faced Simona Halep in a tight three set encounter that saw Jankovic hold three match points in the final set -- two at 5-3 and one more at 5-4 but saw her ultimately fall in the tiebreak 6-2, 3-6, 7-6.

"It was a very difficult match today," Halep said later. "She had 5-3 in the third set and match points, and I was getting a little bit nervous, but I did well and managed to win. I have to say it was one of the best matches in my life."

No. 4 seed Dominika Cibulkova struggled early against American Christina McHale in their match. McHale, who is on the bubble of possibly getting seeded for Roland Garros, forced a first set tiebreak by eventually lost to Cibulkova 7-6, 6-1.

No. 10 seed Nadia Petrova continued her good form on clay as she fired off five aces to defeat Katerina Bondarenko 6-4, 6-4.

Brussels is a WTA Premier event with a total purse of $637,000. Agnieszka Radwanska and Marion Bartoli are the top two respective seeds. Radwanska earned a first round bye and waits to play the winner of the match between Greta Arn and Lesia Tsurenko.

For a look at the draw, click here.