Ivanovic Eases Through; Jankovic Wins Epic

Jelena Jankovic was forced to come back from the brink against Sofia Arvidsson at the Sony Ericsson Open on Saturday evening, eventually triumphing on a thrilling final set tie-break. Also advancing at the $3.77-million, Tier I event were fellow Top 10 stars Ana Ivanovic, Anna Chakvetadze and Daniela Hantuchova.
 
No.4 seed Jankovic had won a mere three main draw matches in six visits to Key Biscayne prior to this year and she made a sluggish start to her 2008 challenge, falling an early break behind before dropping the opening set to Arvidsson on a tie-break. From this point though the 23-year-old from Belgrade showed just why she is viewed as one of the most fearsome competitors on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, raising her game to break serve twice and level matters up at one set apiece.
 
However, when Arvidsson proceeded to race 5-1 ahead in the decider the match looked all but over. Yet Jankovic was not succumbing without a fight, somehow managing to claw back the deficit, before fending off five match points in the tie-break en route to an epic 67(7) 62 76(9) victory.
 
Jankovic's fellow Serb Ivanovic has enjoyed a fine start to the 2008 season, finishing runner-up at the Australian Open and on Sunday captured her sixth Tour career title at Indian Wells. These performances have seen the 20-year-old rise to a career-high ranking of No.2 and she displayed just why she has been making such rapid strides during her 45-minute demolition of Loit, hitting 20 winners en route to a 61 62 win.
 
"It's completely different feeling here, than in Indian Wells," Ivanovic said. "The balls are different, the courts, the wind and the humidity. So I just want to focus on each match separately, and try to keep the level up like I did against Emilie and hopefully I can go along way again."
 
Next up for Ivanovic is an intriguing clash with former world No.1 Lindsay Davenport. The hard-hitting American has been in scintillating form since returning to the Tour last September - after taking a one-year break from tennis in order to give birth to her first child - winning 28 of her 32 matches and storming to four titles along the way. No.32 seed Davenport raced into a 3-0 lead during her second round encounter with Camille Pin and from this point she never looked back, wrapping up a 62 61 win in quick-fire fashion.
 
"I knew that I would be in control of a lot of points against Camille and she'd run down a lot of balls." Davenport said. "I know she got injured, and I don't think she ran down as many balls as she normally does. But I was kind of trying to get used to the conditions out there and I was happy to get off the court relatively fast and pretty efficient."
 
Russian Duo Cruise Through Opening Examination

The Russian duo of Chakvetadze and Elena Dementieva were two more players to make impressive starts in Miami, successfully negotiating potentially tricky encounters with Tamira Paszek and Kateryna Bondarenko respectively. The opening months of Chakvetadze's season have been riddled with inconsistencies, with a seventh career title at Paris [Indoors] interspersed by premature exits at Sydney, the Australian Open, Antwerp and Doha. However, the young Muscovite looked back to her best on Saturday as brushed aside the prodigiously gifted Austrian teenager Paszek 63 62, in little more than an hour.
 
After lifting the Dubai title during her last outing on Tour, Dementieva entered her second round clash with Bondarenko brimming with confidence and promptly stormed through the opening set without dropping a game. Her Ukrainian foe recovered somewhat in the second, but it was not enough to stem the tide as she eventually succumbed to a 60 64 defeat.
 
Facing Chakvetadze and Dementieva for a place in the fourth round will be another set of talented young stars, in the shape of the ever-improving Sabine Lisicki and Dominika Cibulkova. Lisicki notched-up her 14th win of the season with a 61 75 triumph over the Ukrainian lucky loser Mariya Koryttseva, while Cibulkova bounced back from a set down to send No.20 seed Francesca Schiavone crashing out, 36 64 64.
 
No.7 seed Daniela Hantuchova also made her way through to the round of 32 with minimal fuss, breezing past Milagros Sequera, 62 61. Here she will meet Ai Sugiyama after the experienced Japanese campaigner conjured up a vintage performance to see off Anabel Medina Garrigues, 62 63. Day 4 also brought straight set triumphs for No.13 seed Dinara Safina, No.18 Sybille Bammer and No.19 Vera Zvonareva, although there was also an upset or two along the way.
 
World No.15 Nicole Vaidisova has been struggling for form of late and suffered a further setback when she was surprisingly knocked out by Russian qualifier Alisa Kleybanova, 64 60. Fellow Top 20 star Nadia Petrova also made a premature exit from the tournament when a right quad strain forced her to retire during the first set of her match with Zheng Jie - the Chinese player faces Amélie Mauresmo next, a 46 62 76(2) over her compatriot Peng Shuai.

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