In the battle of the former champions, Stosur prevails

Sam Stosur (photo by Daniel Ward)

 There was a time when Jelena Jankovic's rubber body and her ability to appear to be everywhere on the court at the same time created major problems for Sam Stosur. But times have changed. While Jankovic is still a fine defensive player, she just isn't as quick as she was back then, and her signature backhand down the line is now an occasional tactic, rather than a constant threat.

Jelena Jankovic (photo by Daniel Ward)

In last night's feature Volvo Car Open match, Stosur brought the serve for which she is known, and easily grabbed the first set 6-1 from Jankovic. The Serbian star rallied in the second set, going up a break right away, and even keeping the lead for a while. But the errors came back, and Stosur remained steady, eventually winning the set 6-3.

The tournament's first major upset occurred last night, too, as the 3rd-seeded Chan sisters were defeated in the first round of doubles by Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke. The veteran team won the match 1-6, 7-6, 10-6.

And yesterday featured another long, tense contest--this time, between 2011 runner-up Lucie Safarova and Varvara Lepchenko. Safarova defeated Lepchenko 7-5, 6-7, 6-3.

For Jankovic's many fans, there's good news: She and partner Andrea Petkovic will play doubles together today against the Czech team of Lucie Hradecka and Katerina Siniakova. This alone is worth the price of admission to the grounds.