Jankovic on course to top tennis rankings

Tag : Round Over Bit

The top-seeded Serbian could knock compatriot Ana Ivanovic from thetop spot by winning the tournament, her first since injuring herright knee at Wimbledon.
King pressed Jankovic throughout the first set before the Serb tookcontrol in the second.
"My leg felt fine, I didn't have any pain," Jankovic toldthe Associated Press.
"I felt a little bit slow when I was moving around, not soexplosive like I'm used to. It's just a matter of feeling morecomfortable."
Jankovic is now the major drawing card in a tournament hard-hit bythe withdrawals of Serena and Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport andSvetlana Kuznetsova.
"It's really unfortunate this tournament doesn't have manypeople," she said. "The stadium is quite empty which isunusual because most of our tournaments are a full house," shesaid.
The lack of fans made Jankovic's cheering section -- local Serbssporting "JJ's Crew" T-shirts -- stand out.
"I'm obviously not 100 percent and I'm not playing my besttennis, but little by little, I will try to do it, especially forthe big tournaments," said Jankovic, who is scheduled to playin the Beijing Olympics. "Hopefully, I will keep gettingbetter."
Home hope Bethanie Mattek continued her surge up the rankings witha convincing 6-4 6-0 victory against 11th-seed Nicole Vaidisova ofthe Czech Republic.
Mattek's win over Vaidisova was her ninth in 11 matches as sheheads to the top 50 in the rankings.
Qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia rallied to upset 15th seedDominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, 3-6 7-5 6-4.
Fourth-seed Dinara Safina of Russia moved into the third round,beating Shuai Peng of China 6-2 6-2.
However, seventh-seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland was anotherupset victim, losing to Ai Sugiyama 6-4 7-5; and 122nd-ranked MengYuan of China eliminated 16th seed Sania Mirza of India 6-4 6-3.