Serbian fifth seed Jelena Jankovic learnt some harsh lessons on Monday after Romanian high school student Sorana Cirstea beat her 3-6, 6-0, 9-7 in the French Open fourth round.
Jankovic, who had reached the Roland Garros semi-finals for the past two years, blamed a lack of confidence for allowing herself to be outfoxed by the 19-year-old’s devastating net play.
The Serbian former world No. 1 served for the match in the 11th game of the third set and was two points away from victory but the tenacious world No. 41 broke when Jankovic hit long.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“I should’ve closed the match out at 6-5. I had 30-0, what more can I ask for myself?” she told a news conference. “I should have gone for more and I should have risked. But I didn’t do that and it cost me the match.”
“I need my confidence back. I need to go for my shots, I need to have that belief that they’re going to go in,” she said.
Jankovic, who said her confidence had been hit by a shaky start to the year in which she lost the No. 1 ranking, stormed through the first three games before being broken in the seventh.
She immediately broke back and claimed the set when Cirstea hit long. She never got into the second set as Cirstea made regular charges to the net to send a series of winners past her.
Cirstea, who lists geography and English as her favorite subjects at school, unleashed a sizzling crosscourt backhand to reach her first grand slam quarter-final against Australian Samantha Stosur.
“It’s a great feeling, and the most important is that I’m happy with my game and the way I’m playing,” Cirstea said.
Reaching the quarter-finals has given Cirstea the perfect alibi if her high school thinks she is playing truant.
“Now they can see me on TV. They know I’m not somewhere else,” she said.
Cirstea, whose final exams are before the US Open which starts in August, has taken a break from revising while she has been in Paris.
“Honestly I haven’t been studying this week. I think I was just trying to focus on Roland Garros,” she said. “I can study after I finish the tournament again.”
In the men’s singles Andy Roddick’s best showing at the French Open ended with a lopsided loss in fading light as Gael Monfils of France beat the American 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.
The match was the last of the day on Court Suzanne Lenglen, and play didn’t begin until 7:47pm. Roddick began complaining to chair umpire Enric Molina in the second set that it was too dark.
After losing that set, Roddick told Molina: “I’m having trouble seeing the ball. I can’t see the ball.”
Roddick, who had never before gone past the third round at Roland Garros, missed several volleys and at least one overhead shot. After one miscue, the partisan crowd roared, and Monfils egged the spectators on, waving his hands as if to say, “Get louder!”
“The crowd did a good job supporting me. At times, I asked them to wake up and try to bury Andy. They responded, and I think he was a bit annoyed,” said Monfils, who’ll play Roger Federer in the quarter-finals. “As for Andy, I apologize for that.”
Roddick, for his part, didn’t complain.
“It’s certainly his right,” the 2003 US Open champion said. “It’s his advantage to use.”
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