Jankovic fights through at U.S. Open

Aug 27, 2008 - 9:55 PM By Carl Dispoto PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

FLUSHING, New York (Ticker ) --Jelena Jankovic's impressive year was almost derailed by a major upset.

Jankovic narrowly survived her second-round match against unseeded Sofia Arvidsson at the U.S. Open on Wednesday, enduring for a 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5 victory.

Jankovic has had a tremendous season highlighted by a rise to take the No. 1 ranking in June as well as reaching at least the quarterfinals in 14 tournaments, including the Olympics in Beijing. She was a semifinalist at the French and Australian Opens and was ousted in the fourth round at Wimbledon mainly due to a knee injury suffered earlier in the tournament.

Currently ranked second, the 23-year-old Serb has performed well at Flushing Meadows in the last couple of years, reaching the semifinals in 2006 and the quarterfinals in 2007. But she was nearly ousted in the second round for the first time since 2004 and avoided becoming the second upset victim of the day.

Eighth-seeded Vera Zvonareva earlier lost a second-round match.

Jankvoic's knee injury has prevented her from coming into the Grand Slam in peak condition and it showed against Arvidsson, who utilized a combination of drop shots and aggressive forehands to nearly pull off the biggest upset of the tournament thus far.

Jankovic looked exasperated through much of the match, leaning against the back wall and lying at center court to catch her breath at various times.

"It was a really tough match and she pushed me to the limit," Jankovic said. "For me to play three hours, it's amazing at this moment because I haven't been training as hard as I want to. I still need a lot of days to get better and better but it's going to take some time."

Jankovic struggled with her serve throughout, committing nine double faults and failing to end the match in the second set by squandering a pair of chance to serve for the win. The back-and-forth third set personified the sloppy match, which featured 101 unforced errors, as both players struggled to hold serve and gain much of an advantage.

Arvidsson nearly forced a tiebreaker in the final set, taking a 30-15 lead when a backhand from Jankovic found the net. The players traded forehand winners and Jankovic forced deuce when she buried Arvidsson in the far corner and dropped a backhander just over the net.

Arvidsson misfired on a pair of backhands to lose the match, giving Jankovic a chance to exhale after the two hour, 44-minute epic. Jankovic waved and blew kisses to the crowd with a towel draped over her head, fully aware she averted disaster.

"I really need to lift the level of my tennis and try to play a lot better," Jankovic said. "I'm trying really hard but because of the injuries I'm having a tough time. I'm trying to get back to form."

Jankovic admitted she cramped while running on a treadmill following the match and couldn't bend her leg.

"I was saying to my coach, can you imagine if this happened during the match," she said. "I probably wouldn't have been able to finish."

An upset would have been an enormous achievement for Arvidsson, who had a strong start to 2008 but has faltered recently after suffering a knee injury at Wimbledon.

No stranger to upsets, Arvidsson knocked off No. 10 Marian Bartoli in the first round of the Australian Open. However, she lost to top-ranked Ana Ivanovic at Roland Garros in the first round and was forced to retire with a knee injury in her opening-round match at Wimbledon despite winning the first set.

Jankovic easily won the first set here despite 17 unforced errors and raced out to a 3-0 lead in the second. But Arvidsson rallied for six straight points to turn the momentum of the match and Jankovic began to pay the price for her erratic play.

After Arvidsson continued to put shots just out of her reach, Jankovic hunched over or layed down on the court, epitomizing the frustration of turning an easy straight-sets victory into a lengthy duel.

"I was just so exhausted," Jankovic said of her periodic collapses. "I didn't have the energy to get up. I would have loved to take a nap on the court. But the rules are the rules and I had to keep going."

Jankovic will face Wimbledon semifinalist Zheng Jie of China in the third round on Friday.