Jelena Jankovic ended the eight-match Asian win streak of Lindsay Davenport, halting the American's career comeback 6-3, 7-5 to reach the final of the China Open yesterday.
The semi-final victory provided sweet revenge for the Serb second seed, who came up short in an ill-tempered quarter-final to the 31-year-old Californian in Bali eight days ago, an event Davenport went on to win.
"This time round it was a different story," Jankovic said. "I tried to play tight and move her around the court."
PHOTO: EPA
Jankovic earned her first victory against Davenport after four defeats and now stands just one win away from her fifth title of the season.
The second seed will play sixth seed Agnes Szavay in today's final. The Hungarian beat China's Peng Shuai 6-1, 6-2, in yesterday's second semi-final.
Davenport will return more than satisfied to California with her three-month-old son Jagger after proving to herself this month that she still has the game to compete with the elite on the WTA.
"It's been a wonderful two weeks, I've enjoyed it," she said.
The three-time grand slam winner retired after Beijing a year ago, ready to devote time to starting a family. By the time she gave birth in June, she was ready to give her sport another try.
She has said she will play a final event this season in Quebec, Canada, before making a decision about whether to resume her career from early next year.
Jankovic had to fight to get the job done at the Beijing tennis center in a second set littered with service breaks in six of the last eight games.
The Serb finally closed out the win in 90 minutes after losing her own serve four times and breaking Davenport on six occasions.
The American struck five aces but also produced four double-faults while Jankovic had three of each.
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
LIKE FINE WINE: Thirty-eight-year-old Djokovic won his 101st title of his career in Athens, becoming the oldest tournament winner since Ken Roswell, 44, in 1977 Elena Rybakina on Saturday clinched her biggest title since Wimbledon in 2022, defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (7/0) at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. The world No. 6 put on yet another serving masterclass and was at her returning best as she became the first Kazakh and the first player representing an Asian country to lift the WTA Finals singles trophy. Having gone 3-0 in round-robin play, Rybakina earned a record US$5.235 million and would finish the year ranked No. 5 in the world. “It’s been an incredible week, I honestly didn’t expect any result, and to go so far,
EMPTY STANDS: Maccabi fans were banned from attending by police, who cited violence and hate crimes when the team played Ajax in Amsterdam last season Aston Villa beat Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0 on Thursday in a Europa League game played amid heightened security measures, with more than 700 police officers deployed to deal with possible protests. Morgan Rogers put through Ian Maatsen in first-half stoppage time for the defender to score from a tight angle and Villa doubled the lead on the hour with Donyell Malen hitting the bottom corner from the penalty spot. It was Villa’s third win from games in the competition. The game at Villa Park had become the center of a political debate after Maccabi fans were banned from attending, as
An amateur soccer league organized by farmers, students and factory workers in rural China has unexpectedly drawn millions of fans and inspired big cities to form their own, raising hopes China can grow talent from the ground up and finally become a global force. The nation of 1.4 billion people has about 200 million soccer fans, more than any other country, but it has failed to build world-class teams, partly due to a top-down approach where clubs pick players from a very small pool of prescreened candidates. The professional game is marred by a history of fixed matches, corruption, and dismal performances,
RSS