Jankovic Did Not Survive on Kanepi's Challenge

US Open ’10 Update

Kaia Kanepi reached the fourth round of the US Open for the first time in her career after a 6-2, 7-6 (1) upset over 4th seeded Jelena Jankovic. Kanepi, who reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon earlier this year,overcame a patchy second set, in which she lost her serve twice in a row, to eliminate Jankovic 6-2, 7-6 (1) in one hour and 48 minutes.

Kaia Kanepi by Philip Hall

During the first set, everything did not work to Jankovic's way. The wind is blowing fast and so are her errors. She struggled most of the time on her serve. She even paused several times during her service motion. At the end of first set she only managed to hold serve once and win only 46% of her first serve points. Not to mention that Kanepi dominated most of the rallies keeping Jankovic out balanced and force to commit mistakes.

"You toss the ball, and it was all over the place," Jankovic said. "And then you hit the ball one direction, it goes another. You're just getting ready to hit the ball and just moves away from you. So it was really hard out there."

She may have some excuse but she did not fail to recognize her opponent's solid performance: "The wind was really strong, and she handled these kind of conditions a lot better than I did ... She was the better player today. Congrats to her."

The second set was tighter as both girls were tentative to hit their shots. Kanepi managed to hold her serve and lead 2-1 only to see Jankovic level the set at 3-3. Jankovic tried to to move Kanepi around but the Estonian chased every ball and hit winners at most important points leaving Jankovic wondering what to do. There was a time that Jankovic moved forward but her attempt failed as her volley was caught by the net.
At 4-3, Kanepi serving at 15-15, Jankovic was in trouble when Kanepi hit and an angled crosscourt forehand that left her scrambling on the side and set up a forehand winner. Although Kanepi followed it up with an error but a beautiful serve and backhand winner down the line finished the game to lead at 5-3.

Jelena Jankovic by Philip Hall

Jankovic refused to give up. Jankovic kept fighting, stepping in on Kanepi's second serve with a backhand winner down the line to trail at 4-5 and hold her serve to go back into the match at 5-5. She broke Kanepi again to lead 6-5.  But Kanepi held herself together, thanks to Jankovic’s three errors and forced a tie-breaker. 

The tie-break signaled the end of Jankovic’s campaign as Kanepi dominates and end it with 7-1 victory.