Second seed Vera Zvonareva won an entertaining three-set Qatar Ladies Opensemifinal against fifth seed Jelena Jankovic, in which the winner was uncertain until the last moment.
The beginning of the match was very misleading – just as at 40-0 it seemed that Jankovic would confidently win her first service game and give great resistance in the match, Zvonareva won five straight points and broke the Serb. The set finished pretty much as miserably for Jankovic, as she lost it win only one game won.
The situation prepared Jankovic’s fans for a meltdown, but Jankovic offered a surprise, slowly coming back, and bit by bit outweighing her downs with ups, she won the second set 6-2.
The third set brought another factor to the story of this match – in the very first game Jankovic fell in pain, holding her left ankle (yesterday she had problems with her left knee, but today she didn’t seem affected by it). Jankovic’s face expression wasn’t promising, but the ankle scare turned out not to be a big of a deal, and the match continued.
The turning point happened in the ninth game of the decider, at 4-4, when Jankovic blew a 40-0 present from Zvonareva and let the Russian win that game and soon after the match, on her first match point. This lost opportunity has left Jankovic with much to regret about this semifinal.
Final score: 6-1 2-6 6-4.
Zvonareva’s opponent in the final will be world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, who is in the form of her life, and came to Doha right after her victory in Dubai. Wozniacki is thus the favorite for the title, and also, she has a 4-3 record against Zvonareva, including the win in their last two encounters. (photos: Johan Rivera)
Too bad, JJ-Caro final would be much more interesting match.
Oh JJ, always Drama with her and her matches. It gets annoying after some time. She should have one the match in the third. She had better stats from the beg of the second set until the end of the match. She still is not in top form, however her serve is much better. If she wants to excel this year she HAS to use every opportunity in a match! She had two games where she was leading 40-0 on Vera’s serve and lost the game! Those are the opportunities I am talking about!
Bb, JJ could have “easily” won the match, the match really could have gone either way, but this time it was Vera’s turn.