Jelena Jankovic Ousts Petra Kvitova In Semifinals Of 2013 China Open, To Face Serena Williams In Final

Jelena Jankovic (click to enlarge)

Jelena Jankovic continued to remind us of the kind of player she once was, and perhaps is again, with a 6-7 (7) 6-1 6-1 semifinal victory over Petra Kvitova at the 2013 China Open. After edging JJ in the first set, one could think that Petra went on one of her walkabouts and lost focus. Or one could point to the fact that Petra pulled out of the upcoming tournament at Linz citing a back problem. But make no mistake, this win was all about Jelena, not Petra. JJ raised the level of her game and Petra didn’t. I think part of Petra pulling out of Linz might have to do with playing Tokyo and Beijing back to back and wanting to rest a bit before the Tour Championship in Istanbul later this month. There is no rest for Jelena, who now faces the ultimate challenge of facing Serena Williams in the final. JJ does have a few wins over Serena (4 in 10 tries), but I don’t know how much those previous results tell us anything about this upcoming match.

SINGLES – SEMIFINALS
[1] Serena Williams (USA) d [3] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)	\| 6 – 2 \| 6 – 2 \|
[8] Jelena Jankovic (SRB) d [9] Petra Kvitova (CZE)	\| 6 (7) – 7 \| 6 – 1 \| 6 – 1 \|