Lleyton Hewitt’s countrywoman, Samantha Stosur, has been defeated by Jelena Jankovic of Serbia in the third round of the French Open. Jankovic won the match in three sets by 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Stosur was looking in top form at the start of the match and she managed to get ahead by a set. But, from the second set onwards, she lost her rhythm and ended up getting knocked out of the tournament.
In the post match interview, Stosur said, “I am gutted to end up on the losing side. Frankly speaking, my performance was decent for most parts of the match, but, I committed some mistakes at crucial times and that made the difference.”
In the first set, the first 7 games went with the serve and Stosur was leading by 4-3 when the 7th game ended.
Jankovic dropped her serve in the 8th game which increased Stosur’s lead to 5-3. After that, the Australian player served out the 9th game to grab the opener.
In the second set, Jankovic looked in better rhythm. With a breakthrough in the second game, she was off to a lead of 2-0. However, she was broken back in the very next game and her lead got diminished to 2-1.
The next 4 games went with the serve and at the end of the 7th game; the score was 4-3 in the favour of Jankovic.
Jankovic managed to sneak another breakthrough in the 8th game to extend her lead to 5-3. Now, all she required to win the set was a serve hold in the next game and she did that smoothly.
In the decider, both players lost their serve twice in the first 6 games and the scores were equalized at 3-3. The next 2 games went with the serve and the scores were still levelled.
In the 9th game, Stosur’s serve was broken again which gave Jankovic a vital lead of 5-4. The Serbian player just held her serve in the 10th game and finished off the match to move into the pre quarter finals.