INDIAN WELLS, United States: Jelena Jankovic ended her skid against Caroline Wozniacki on Tuesday, booking a quarter-final clash at Indian Wells against second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska.
HunzaNews March 13th, 2014.
Jankovic, seeded seventh, defeated 10th-seeded Wozniacki 6-3, 6-1 in a battle of former world number ones.
In a rematch of the 2010 final in the California desert won by Jankovic, the seventh-seeded Serb showed no sign of the back trouble that required several visits from the trainer during her third-round victory over Magdalena Rybarikova on Sunday.
Since her 2010 triumph here, Jankovic had dropped five straight decisions to Denmark´s Wozniacki. And with golf-star fiance Rory McIlroy courtside, Wozniacki was quick to gain the upper hand in this one, breaking for a 3-1 lead in the first. But Jankovic reeled off 10 straight games to take a firm grip on the match.
Serving to extend the opening set, Wozniacki couldn´t put a first serve in play and was broken at love.
The Dane, who won the title in 2011 and was runner-up last year to Maria Sharapova, was unable to convert three break points in the fifth game of the second frame.
After Wozniacki finally held for 5-1 in the second, Jankovic wrapped up the win in just 64 minutes, returning to the quarter-finals here for the first time since her 2010 triumph.
Radwanska reached the quarter-finals with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over France´s Alize Cornet.Cornet, who stunned world number one Serena Williams in the semi-finals at Dubai last month, rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the opening set, breaking Radwanska twice as she won four straight games to take a 5-4 lead.
But serving for the set, she wasted two set points, the second with a double-fault, and that was the only opening Radwanska needed to take the frame.
In the second set, it was Radwanska who gave up the first break, but Cornet couldn´t maintain her advantage and Radwanska broke her twice to grab the win.Chinese top seed Li Na was to take on Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak under the floodlights on Tuesday night for a quarter-final berth.
The winner of that match will face Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova — who lost to Li in the final of the Australian Open in January. Cibulkova defeated eighth-seeded Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-2. (AFP)