Whatever Jalena Jankovic is eating, the former number one Serb should stick with the diet. There’s a little more bounce in her game and oodles of confidence to go along with her resurgent play. The 2010 Indian Wells Champion has brought her new attitude to Miami and the 7 seed is moving smoothly through the field.
Thirty-one year old Croatian Ivan Ljubicic did the unthinkable in silencing a heavy pro-Roddick crowd by out-serving America’s top gunslinger. Not that Roddick served poorly, he did not. It’s just that Ljubicic served spectacularly, which he did.
Princess Caroline Wozniacki’s rightful place at the top of women’s tennis will come. On Sunday, former world number one Jalena Jankovic completed a magical week at Indian Wells by serving notice to the pretty Dane the she would have to wait her turn. And, her turn has not yet arrived.
As happens so often in the pivotal third set, he who serves well, wins. The trend happened again twice on Saturday at the BNP Paribas Open as 31-year old Ivan Ljubicic staved off a charge from Rafa Nadal and Andy Roddick sealed the deal against Robin Soderling.
Even when Robin Soderling let Andy Murray up for air, the troubled Scotsman could not pull himself together to stave off the inevitable defeat on Friday at the BNP Paribas Open.
It is hard to tell if 31-year old Ivan Ljubicic is celebrating his birthday on Friday or celebrating a well-deserved day off as he prepares for his semifinal match with Spanish sharp shooter Rafa Nadal on Saturday. Nadal, fresh off a three set win over John Isner, withstood a late charge by the 19th seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 6-4, 7-6 (4) to win his 20th of 21 matches at Indian Wells. The defending champion looks healthy and fleet afoot.
Jalena Jankovic, whose career has been sliding backwards for the past 12 months will clash with Samantha Stosur, whose career has turned dramatically upwards in the semifinals of the 2010 BNP Paribas Open. The winner of the upper bracket will move on to face the winner of the lower bracket match between 5th seeded Aggie Radwanska and number two seed Caroline Wozniacki in the finals.
If you like predictable, you would not like what’s happening at Indian Wells this year. The California Desert has become the upset capital of the world. The trend continued on Wednesday as number 2 seed, Novak Djokovic joined top seeded Roger Federer in the peanut gallery for the remainder of the week.
Top remaining seed, Princess Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark is doing her best to uphold the integrity of tennis royalty at Indian Wells. It is full time job, which some of the top seeds and former world number ones, now struggling beauty queens, do not understand. The 19-year old has now finished two consecutive tight matches with convincing third set wins.
Number two seed, Dane Caroline Wozniacki, continued her fine play while 4th seeded Elena Dementieva and impressive Aussie Samantha Stosur joined five other winners in the quarterfinals at the BNB Paribas Open. Only Dementieva and Wozniacki remain of the top seeds at Indian Wells.
