Jankovic shakes off rust to battle past King in LA

Enlarge Photo Jelena Jankovic of Serbia reacts during her match against Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand at the...

Thu, Jul 24 10:48 AM

By Matthew Cronin

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Top seed Jelena Jankovic overcame some early jitters before battling to a 7-5 6-2 victory over Vania King at the Los Angeles Classic on Wednesday, the Serb advancing to the third round on a day of several upsets.

Playing her first match since falling in the fourth round at Wimbledon, Jankovic staved off two set points in the 10th game against the unseeded American before taking control of the contest.

Jankovic is struggling to regain full fitness since suffering a torn meniscus in her knee during the Wimbledon defeat at the end of June, but she was able to take comfort from the fact the injury was not hurting her.

"I was little but behind the ball and not reacting as fast and not having then right balance on my shots," Jankovic told reporters. "But the most important thing is I don't have pain in my leg."

Should she go on to win the title, the Serbian will take over the world number one ranking from absent compatriot Ana Ivanovic.

"Four more to go and it's a lot of matches, but I will try my best" she added.

While Jankovic was able to survive a scare and remain in the draw, three seeds went down in second round matches.

Japan's Ai Sugiyama continued her good form with a 6-4 7-5 victory over Swiss hope Patty Schnyder, American Bethanie Mattek eased to a 6-4 6-0 win against Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic and China's Yuan Meng beat India's Sania Mirza 6-4 6-3.

The 33-year-old Sugiyama, who reached the semi-finals of last week's Stanford Classic, never gave her seventh seeded opponent a chance to settle in an energetic encounter.

"I could never put my foot down," Schnyder said. "She's always there and ready to come back. You always feel stressed."

Mattek took full advantage of the 11th seeded Vaidisova's notoriously fragile temperament as the Czech teenager lost her head in the second set and sprayed balls all over the court.

"She's a great player and I expected her to come out and start hitting big," Mattek said. "I think she got frustrated when she couldn't break me straight off in the second set."

Seeded 16th here, Mirza was unable to match her 122nd ranked opponent's consistency and struggled with the conditions.

"The conditions suited her better," Mirza said. "I didn't feel like I played badly but with the wind, I found it more difficult to hit winners."

Also advancing to the third round was fourth seeded Dinara Safina of Russia, the French Open finalist eased to a 6-2 6-2 victory over China's Peng Shuai to join compatriot and fifth seed Vera Zvonareva, who beat American Jill Craybas 6-4 7-6.

Eighth seeded Victoria Azarenka, number nine Nadia Petrova, number 10 Flavia Pennetta and number 14 Sybille Bammer also moved into the next round.

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