Jankovic reaches fourth round

1:38pm Saturday 30th August 2008

The second-seeded Jelena Jankovic advanced to the fourth round of the US Open thanks to a 7-5 7-5 victory over China's Zheng Jie on Friday.

The top remaining seed in this hardcourt major, Jankovic has failed to advance beyond the semi-finals in her first 20 career Grand Slam appearances. But the Serb capitalised on some sloppy play by Zheng to reach the fourth round for the third straight year.

One day after top-seeded countrywoman Ana Ivanovic was ousted, Jankovic avoided the upset against Zheng, who committed 41 unforced errors in a match that lasted two hours, nine minutes. After squandering four match points and saving seven break points in the 12th game of the second set, Jankovic finally secured the victory when Zheng fired a forehand shot into the net.

"I went to a third set the other match in my second round, so I didn't want to do that," Jankovic said. "I was a little bit frustrated with myself. In the first set, I was serving well and holding my serves and doing quite well. Then in the second set, I don't know what happened. I just lost my rhythm. Throughout the whole match, I had a really bad percentage of first serves and mainly playing with second serves, which obviously doesn't help."

The 1998 US Open champion, Lindsay Davenport of the United States did not fare as well, dropping a 6-1 7-6 (7/3) decision to 12th-ranked Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli. The 32-year-old Davenport missed this hardcourt event last year due to a pregnancy but had made it to at least the quarterfinals of the US Open each of the previous 10 years. That streak was snapped by Bartoli, who has yet to lose a set here this week.

While Jankovic and Bartoli advanced, third-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova was upset by Katarina Srebotnik of Slovakia 6-3 6-7 (7/1) 6-3. The setback for Kuznetsova may have opened the door for Jankovic.

Coming off her gold-medal winning performance at the Beijing Olympics, Elena Dementieva of Russia secured her spot in the fourth round by defeating Anne Keothavong of Great Britain 6-3 6-4.

Dementieva converted six-of-10 break points and was aided by 38 unforced errors by Keothavong, who also connected on just 57 percent of her first serves. Up next for Dementieva is a fourth-round match against China's Li Na, who on Thursday defeated Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-1 4-6 6-2.

"I'm sure the match against Li will be a tough one," Dementieva said. "And it will be tough for both of us, because we've played against each other a year ago, and it was really very close match."

In a mild upset, 14th-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus fell to number 21 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-4 6-4. Seeded winners included number 15 Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, who eliminated Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 and number 29 Sybille Bammer of Austria, who easily ousted the Ukraine's Tatiana Perebiynis 6-3 6-0.

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