Jankovic Keeps On Winning; Chakvetadze, Zvonareva Out

Jelena Jankovic's path to capturing the No.1 ranking this week may have gotten a little smoother on Thursday. Anna Chakvetadze and Vera Zvonareva, seeded No.3 and No.5 at the $600,000 East West Bank Classic presented by Herbalife, were ousted as all eight third round matches took the courts.
 
Chakvetadze was bundled out by No.14 seed Sybille Bammer, 64 57 62, her first loss in three career meetings against the Austrian left-hander. Bammer's win over the world No.8 was her second career Top 10 win; her first came at the Tier I tournament in Doha earlier this year, against another Russian, then-world No.2 Svetlana Kuznetsova.
 
"I was making mistakes or I was hitting winners; I felt like I was playing against myself, especially during the third set," said Chakvetadze, who also lost earlier than expected at Stanford last week, falling to Marion Bartoli in the quarterfinals. "I'm disappointed. I had an open door and I didn't take my opportunity."
 
Zvonareva, who reached the quarters or better in eight of her first nine events of the year but came to Los Angeles having suffered five straight pre-quarterfinal exits, added a sixth to that tally with a 64 75 loss to No.9 seed Nadia Petrova. It was Petrova's fifth win in their six career meetings.
 
Jankovic, ranked No.2 in the world with a chance at hitting the top spot for the first time with a title here, continued to cruise on in straight sets, beating lucky loser Melinda Czink, 63 62. Although the first set had more games, the second set lasted longer, as six of the eight games in that set went to deuce and beyond. But Jankovic would always come out on top when it came to the important points.
 
"I was playing much, much better than yesterday," said Jankovic, who nearly lost the first set of her first match of the week to Vania King, but still won in straight sets. "I was very pleased with my serve. Overall it was a lot better. It's really a big improvement from yesterday. Hopefully I can continue on like this."
 
With both Daniela Hantuchova and Patty Schnyder falling in the second round, Chakvetadze and Zvonareva falling in the third round and Serena Williams pulling out of the tournament, the only other Top 8 seeds remaining in the draw as of the quarters are Jankovic, No.4 seed Dinara Safina and No.8 seed Victoria Azarenka.
 
On Thursday, Safina faced a match point against qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva down 5-4 in the third set but smacked an ace to save it, then eventually won, 76(1) 06 76(3); Azarenka had all sorts of trouble in the second set of her match with Samantha Stosur, rallying from 4-1 down and saving four set points down 6-5 en route to a 64 76(4) win.
 
Although Jankovic is the No.1 seed and now has only two other Top 8 seeds to worry about this week - and they will play each other in the quarterfinals anyway, so there's no way she would have to play both of them - the Serbian remains focused on winning just one match at a time.
 
"It's nice to be the No.1 seed and hopefully in the future, No.1 in the world; but some players put too much pressure on themselves," Jankovic said. "I just go out there to play the match and to play my best tennis. I want to win. Everyone expects me to win, but I don't think about that. I know what I have to work on and I go out to the practice courts. I don't think about what people expect."
 
Also advancing to the quarterfinals were No.10 seed Flavia Pennetta, a 76(5) 63 winner over Ai Sugiyama; wildcard Bethanie Mattek, a 75 62 winner over Olga Govortsova; and Yuan Meng, who beat lucky loser Melanie South, 62 63.
 
In Friday's quarterfinals, Jankovic faces Petrova, Safina faces Azarenka, Pennetta faces Bammer and Mattek faces Yuan.

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