Jelena Jankovic falls to Alona Bondarenko in the third round of Australian Open

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Wilson Blade 9

Jelena Jankovic followed her countrywoman Ana Ivanovic out of the Australian Open, losing to Ukrainian seed No.31 Alona Bondarenko 6-2 6-3 in the third round.

The eighth-seeded Jankovic became the second highest women’s seed to be knocked out of the tournament, after seed No.5 Elena Dementieva lost in the second round . The Serb committed forty unforced errors and lost to Bondarenko for the first time in 10 encounters. Previously, Jankovic had lost just one set to Bondarenko in nine meetings.

The world No.30 Bondarenko has now reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Bring the next generation of Serbs, this two (Ana and JJ) are serious head cases. Due to her age I think JJ is done, as far as Ana goes I think her head is in another place-Adam Scott, modeling, and red carpets- lets hope she gets her head in the right place before her window of opportunity closes.

    Ms. Marija, just to annoy you I’m still sticking with my theory on Ana’s decline. 😛

    Since January of 08 JJ’s game has gone south. She has changed coaches and fitness routines it seems that nothing is working for her or what she does is counter productive. Last year comes to mind when JJ gain weight in the form of muscle and it was a total failure. This decline might be related to the excessive amount of tennis she played to reach the number one ranking and we are seeing the results of JJ burning herself out.

  2. Carlos, you think JJ has gone south since January of 2008, not 2009? She got to the semis of the Australian Open, French Open and the final of the US Open in 2008 as you probably remember and won 4 titles too. I would think though that she hasn’t been the same since last January. I don’t think at this stage that either JJ or Ana will ever be the players that they were before, which is a shame because when they were good, they could be really, really good.

  3. Jankovic looked as if she didn’t want to play this match-as if she was upset that she had to play a match. She barely moved her feet, she barely moved her arms to hit forehands, basically, she either had a serious case of the flu, or she’s sick of tennis and has made enough money and plans on retiring soon.
    Regardless, and I’ve said this many times on here, the Serbs are in a funk because they peaked at a time when the top players were injured/recovering from injuries, and now that those players are back neither of them can handle the pressure to play against them over and over and over again. They can’t even beat lower ranked players.

  4. jj, jj, jj…no will to win in that match…waay too pathetic. More Practice = Better results! I think their BFs have a negative influence over them. I saw JJ in 2007 at the Rogers Cup when she was single and playing like crazzy almost beating Henin, and this year when she was with her BF…more cold and does not seem to enjoy it that much anymore.

    something better change soon, and I mean soon…or it’s over for both of them!

    What do u think Marija? How did u feel when she lost?

  5. Ms. Bróna I’m still stuck in 09 space/time continuum mode, meaning that while writing the previous post my mind was thinking is 09 not 2010 hence the mistake of the wrong year, sue me. 😛
    BTW good eye. 😉

    JJ never won the big tournaments, if you are happy with a great player that never was, more power to you. Even at her height in 08 as you mention she fail to go over the hump. She may go out and win a tournament here and there and just maybe she will have a great run at a Grand Slam, but not win the important titles.

    What JJ and Ana did was to put Serbia on the tennis map all the credit to them, for sure both of them planted seeds for Serbia’s tennis future. I’m sure that in the future we will see the next wave of Serbs dominating tennis. Is JJ a Serbian Hall of Fame candidate no question, but in the tennis world? IMO No! A legend in Serbia, not so in my neck of the woods.

  6. I just gave up on both Ana and Jelena. I haven’t written them off, of course, I think their time will come again, but I have no idea when, and I’m not putting any pressure on them. Because, each new tournament they enter is like will this finally be a turning point, and it never is. So right now I feel I should just let them go, and spontaneously, without pressure they will come back.

  7. Jankovic’s strength was her consistency – she always used to go deep into tournaments and challenge for them, whereas other would have weeks of brilliance, and then crash out early in other tournaments. I think in 2008,for example, her only losses before a quarter-final were at Wimbledon and in Zurich. Now, she has lost that consistency and we’ve seen her fall down the rankings. It’s a shame, and I hope she sorts out whatever problems she has.

    I couldn’t watch the match, but I followed the live score and the number of unforced errors off her racquet was unbelievably high. Every time she managed to fight her way into a game, she would hit an unforced error and Bondarenko moved ahead. However, it was nice to see that she gave the credit to Bondarenko in her interview, especially considering how much debate there was about her remarks about Melanie Oudin.

    The one thing I don’t understand is that Jelena says she is a player that needs to play matches in order to find her form, yet she only entered Sydney where she knew she would have tough opposition from day one. I know that as a top ten player, she can only play one Internaional event per half-season, but why not enter an event in Auckland or in Brisbane, so that she could get the match-play and then work on any areas that need improving before the Australian Open? I could use the same logic about the events before Wimbledon, but in my opinion, she’s more likely to progress further at the Australian Open than at Wimbledon, and also, it’s the start of the season and it’ll let her get back into the swing of things more quickly. But I don’t know much about tennis, so maybe I’m missing something!

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