Jelena Jankovic's hip injury flares up whenever she is tired, and today, it flared up during the second set of her Sony Ericsson Championships match against Svetlana Kuznetsova.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. This match began with a bang for Jankovic, who was playing very aggressively and making near-perfect shots. But in the last half of the first set, she made a series of unforced errors that--paired with Kuznetsova's sudden aggression--put her in a danger zone. She served for the match at 5-3 and was broken. She served for it again a few moments later and practically gave Kuznetsova an invitation to break her. But when tiebreak time came, it was Jankovic who prevailed.
The second set featured the injury time-out, for which Jankovic received treatment. She appeared to be in pain and her movement (possibly her most important feature as a tennis player) was hampered, but she kept going. In the second half of the set, she appeared to be in better shape, and she won the match, 7-6, 6-4. This puts her into the semifinals, no matter what...unless her injury does not heal. According to Jankovic--and I'm not quoting exactly, but this is close: "The trainer said something was separated from something, and they have to put it back."
I hope they do.
1 comment:
The first set was amazing. She had around 18 winners and so few UEs. I love seeing JJ play like that. Hope the trainers fix what's wrong.
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