Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) earned one of the biggest upsets of her career as the qualifier outlasted former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (10/8), 7-5 to reach the semi-finals of the WTA Carlsbad tournament.
Chan, who is ranked world No. 161, dealt a blow to the third-seeded Janokovic’s hopes as she won the second-longest match of the season on the WTA Tour on Friday. The encounter lasted three hours, 13 minutes — four minutes less than the longest so far on the circuit.
Chan was playing in her ninth career quarter-final — her last was three years ago — and made the most of the opportunity against the Serb.
Photo: AFP
Chan moves on to face French top seed Marion Bartoli or US fifth seed Christina McHale in the semis.
Jankovic, who has a home in the area, was up a set and led 3-1 in the second when she appeared to come unraveled after Chan took a medical timeout.
A broken string on the final point did not help her cause and provided a fitting punctuation to the disappointing end.
“I’m frustrated and disappointed,” Jankovic said. “I completely lost focus. It was so tough mentally and physically and my forehand let me down. I had the match under control and let it go. I let her come back, I messed up. When you’re down, you have to keep the focus.”
Chan will be in not-so-familiar territory when she plays only the fourth WTA level semi-final of her career. Her last came in 2008 in Strasbourg.
Chan dropped the opening set in a tiebreaker and saved a Jankovic match point in the second before leveling on her own first set point.
In the third, the challenger ran out a 5-2 lead only to see the 19th-ranked Jankovic, who finished world No. 1 in 2008, catch her and force another tiebreak.
The Serb saved one Chan match point with a forehand winner to the corner before sending a return long as she played with two strings gone.
“There was a 99 percent chance for her to win on that point and a 1 percent chance for me,” Jankovic said. “If she just kept playing, it would only be a matter of time before I made a mistake with that broken string.”
Jankovic has been on a slow road back to form over the past few seasons and had played in her first final last month in Birmingham since Cincinnati last summer. Prior to this week, the Serb had lost in the first round 11 times this season. In a quick match lasting half the time of the Jankovic struggle, second seed Dominika Cibulkova beat Poland’s Ursula Radwanska 6-4, 6-4.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a