Once upon a 2007 a 22 year old Jelena Jankovic showed great promise and talent to reach the Roland Garros semi final and US Open quarter final to finish the year ranked third in the world. The following year Jelena made and impressive semi final or better finish at 3 grand slams as well as going down to Serena Williams in a closely contested entertaining US Open final 4-6 5-7. These combined successes saw Jankovic finish the year as the world number one.
In more recent time, especially this year, Jankovic has been inconsistent and appeared uninterested in tennis. Even admitting that at the moment tennis is not her top priority. And yes even I am guilty of calling for her to retire or take a break, as are many other. Until this week Jankovic had not won a tennis match since Roland Garros. Suddenly and since rehiring Ricardo Sanchez, the man who took her to number 1, as her coach Jelena finds herself in the final of the Western & Southern Open scoring wins over 2010 French Open champ Francesca Schiavone and inform Andrea Petkovic.
In tomorrows final Jankovic will take on fourth seeded Maria Sharapova, who won in scrappy performance over world number two Vera Zvonareva 2-6 6-3 6-3. The final will be a great test for Jankovic and I would love nothing more than for her to win the final, get her career back on track and win a slam or two. I hope that this isn't just a once off thing...I would like to see more of you in deep section of tournaments Jelena.
So Jelena best of luck for tomorrow and even better wishes for the US Open.
Oh and just to prove how committed she is to tennis, Jelena has accepted a Wild Card to play New Haven, I hope her plan wont back fire on her.
27 comments:
I said this in the past one good tournament run or even winning a tournament doesn't mean a player is back.
As much as I like JJ she played a ton of tournaments to reach the number one ranking (once again, JJ wrote book The Big Stuffed Bunny copied JJ).
JJ is in the list of players that their boyfriends were career distractors.
She made the mistake to bulk up and resulted to be big career mistake. That year was a waste.
Anyone can beat the Dancing Buffoon in a semifinal match, she punks out.
I think her time has passed to win a slam: age and mental strength.
BTW this whole summer Divapova has been erratic on the hard courts.
Horrible final between JJ and Divapova. I picked up the game in the second set. ESPN had the unforced errors stat in the middle of the third set 40 errors from JJ and 63 from Divapova. Yeah, a memorable match.
JJ could easily have won this match but in typical JJ fashion gave it away.
Divapova no longer the poker face player she was smacking he racquet and at one point she did Sponge Bart's "swing racquet practice" on the back of the court.
Breaking News:
McHale just took the first set from Kuznetsova 7-5.
McHale woooooon! 7-5 6-3
McHale has really impressed this US hard court season!
Yeah the final was pretty horrible from all reports, so happy I didn't watch it :P
WooooHooooo Mchale!
Here is a couple quotes from her:
http://www.rep-am.com/sports/pro/579836.txt
One more win for McHale & Bunny will mean a quarter final match up. And if McHale beats Bunny two times in a row she'll own her just like Julia!
20:00 (Eastern) Goerges - Baltacha (WTA Dallas)
Thursday, Aug. 25 (ESPN3)
01:00 PM New Haven Open at Yale (Quarterfinal Match)
03:00 PM New Haven Open at Yale (Quarterfinal Match)
Friday, Aug. 26 (ESPN3)
02:00 PM New Haven Open at Yale (Semifinal Match)
07:00 PM New Haven Open at Yale (Semifinal Match)
Saturday, Aug. 27 (ESPN3)
05:00 PM New Haven Open at Yale (Final)
Thanks for the link Caps.
Kuznetsova was talking from her point of view and experience (choking).
Sorry I forgot, you are correct once again Captain McHale has really impressed.
Aggie has also done this summer. Is she reading this blog? She seemed to follow my advise to skip Cincinnati. In this tourney I would retire or lose intentionally around the semis if I were her. Keep the eye on the big one.
What are the odds for The Big Stuffed Bunny to lose today?
I'm in need of a flower vase can JJ or Divapova sell me one? :P
Looks like Vesnina is up on JJ serving 15-40 and leading 2-0. I'm guessing its a rain delay which has kept the scoreboard stagnant for some time.
Although I guess it could be Earthquake related. Connecticut isn't that far from Virgina. (Roughly 454 miles.)
Vesnina works over JJ 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. And McHale up 6-2, 2-1 against Navarro.
Caps now you know how "we roll" in California. :P
McHale vs Bunny
Can the Bunny keep her stash Of eggs?
n58 Sofia Arvidsson SWE d n21 s4 Yanina Wickmayer BEL 4-6, 6-0, 1-0 retired—low back injury
n45 q Petra Cetkovska CZE d. n12 s5 Agnieszka Radwanska POL 6-4, 5-7, 6-3
n95 Sorana Cirstea ROU d n30 s7 Jarmila Gajdosova AUS 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
n60 Elena Baltacha GBR d n20 s3 Julia Goerges GER 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(2)
n63 Johanna Larsson SWE d n24 s6 wc Shahar Peer ISR 6-2, 6-4
New Haven, Withdrawals
n23 Daniela Hantuchova SVK left foot injury
n47 Lourdes Dominguez Lino ESP
Dallas, Withdrawals
n15 s1 Shuai Peng CHN left hip injury
n32 Kaia Kanepi EST achilles injury
n33 Bethanie Mattek-Sands USA right shoulder injury
n54 Kimiko Date-Krumm JPN left hand injury
n73 Jelena Dokic AUS right shoulder injury
Not surprised about the amount of withdrawals in Dallas or the upsets in New Haven. I think everyone is reserving themselves for the USO.
Can the Bunny keep her stash Of eggs?
McHale is currently in possession of the eggs! And rumor has it, she won't be relinquishing them any time soon.
Melanie Oudin was the darling of the 2009 U.S. Open. Just 17 at the time, she made it to the quarterfinals before bowing to Caroline Wozniacki. Oudin was quickly touted as part of the next wave of great American female players.
That wave never reached the shores of true success. Oudin, ranked No. 49 after that 2009 U.S. Open, is now ranked No. 120. Her singles record this year is 8-27. The Seattle Mariners can do better in a 35-game stretch. Oudin has lost in the first round in her last seven tournaments. She has become the queen of the first-round flameouts.
Next up to try to carry the mantle for American women’s tennis is Christina McHale. She was referred to in press releases for the New Haven Open at Yale presented by First Niagara as a “rising American.” That’s better than “rising American star,” which would only put more pressure on the 18-year-old from Teaneck, N.J.
Being an American has its advantages when it comes to playing on U.S. soil. There is such a dearth of good players from the United States that McHale is going to get wild cards into events. She got one in March in Indian Wells, Calif., and parlayed it into an upset of Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round.
http://tinyurl.com/3ke72ba
Thanks for the article Caps.
Time for McHale to "Boil The Bunny" and keep the stash.
03:00 PM ESPN3 Caroline Wozniacki vs. Christina Mchale (Quarterfinal Match)
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm: New Haven (W), Quarterfinals (ESPN2, Live)
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP)—Li Na of China had to battle from behind in each set Wednesday to beat Russia’s Maria Kirilenko 6-4, 7-6 (4) in the second round of the New Haven Open, the final WTA tournament before the U.S. Open.
The French Open champion had trailed 3-1 in the first set and 4-1 in the second, before securing the straight-set win and a berth in the quarterfinals.
Li, the first Asian to win a Grand Slam event, has beaten Kirilenko four of the five times they have met. But, she said, the Russian, like most of her opponents since the French Open, seemed to be a bit more focused this time.
“Everyone thinks different,” she said. “Before (it was), `Oh, OK, I beat her.’ But now, if they win, `Oh, I beat a French Open champion.’ They are even more excited.”
Li took the first set after breaking Kirilenko in the seventh game, which went to deuce four times. She also broke Kirilenko in the seventh game of the second set to get back on serve. She then won four straight points in the tiebreaker for a 6-2 cushion.
The Princess is having a lot problems closing sets. Last week she blew 3-0 lead in the third set against the Italian Furby.
Caps you are becoming the unofficial third blogger, thanks for the news stories.
Off topic: Last week I was watching a repeat of "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson". In the Twitter/email segment Craig kept asking his sidekick Geoff Petersen the robot places he has been.
Craig: Ever been to Charlotte, North Caroline Geoff?
Geoff: Oh yes, I own a house there.
Craig: Have you been to Toronto Geoff?
Geoff: Yes, I own a house there.
Craig: What about Maryland, ever been there?
Geoff: Yes, I own a house there.
Craig: Ever been to Melbourne Australia, Geoff?
Geoff: Hell no!
Just throwing this out there haha :P
I like Craig Ferg and also Jimmy Fallon. But, I only watch when someone is on I'm interested in.
Looks like rain has delayed the McHale match seeing that Li Na/Pav was suppose to be on at 1pm. ESPN3 just finished pre match interviews.
I check all late night guys to see who their guest are, like you Caps if there is someone that I like I stayed tuned. Yesterday Letterman had Nadal and I didn't watch.
I'm guessing all games now will be on ESPN3.
In case you need it, the following site gives about 2 weeks worth of upcoming guests for all the talk shows:
http://www.interbridge.com/lineups.html
Scroll down past the RSS feeds for individual shows and you'll see a listing by date.
The Na Li match has vanished from my scoreboard. I was watching Necessary Roughness that comes on the USA network. Now I'm onto check out the newest episodes of Underbelly (New Zealand) and Underbelly Razor (Australia).
ESPN3 has up a 'slate' on the Na Li match that says a weather delay. But, they don't have the McHale match listed anymore. I need to know what time her match starts!
As of 8:00pm Eastern ESPN3 has Bunny vs McHale coming up next.
First set:
McHale came back from 0-3 to even it up at 3-3. Then at 4-4 she came back from 40-15 and had game point for 5-4 but hit two long and one wide.. Very costly.
Bunny seems to be playing rather well considering she's huffing and puffing from running. She's coming to net and going for her shots with the forehand which seems to be working rather well. And she wins the first set 7-5.
Boooooooooooooo!
I want the Bunny boiled!
Thanks for the link Caps.
Where do you watch Underbelly?
google - underbelly s01e01 or whatever season/episode you're looking for. The Australian version is currently in their 4th season. If looking for the NZ one (just started first season) probably something like underbelly nz s01e01, s01e02.
Did you see the first set where McHale hit that backhand dropper and Bunny tried to lie about it not bouncing twice? Notice how Bunny's dad has came out once in each set already? What's she gonna do at the US Open?
I love McHale's game but she has some work to do.. I'm sure she'll get more reliable with experience. However, I don't think she's even gonna take this one to a third set.
I've been running around couldn't se the match.
McHale lost 7-5 6-3 BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Thanks, I'll check underbelly. I heard from Clefairy that is a kick ass show.
Here is season 1 of underbelly from a fast server. You can only download one file at a time per IP address. (13 episodes, 1 file each X 350MB.)
http://tinyurl.com/3pmhuw2
Depending on your version of Windows, the videos might only play sound because you're missing a video codec. Its easier just to install video lan which will play anything thrown at it.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
US Open draw is out:
http://www.usopen.org/en_US/scores/draws/ws/wsdraw.pdf
Will check it out tomorrow myself.
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