Jankovic struggles to victory

Jelena Jankovic Jelena Jankovic, the sixth seed from Serbia, survived an injury scare before winning her opening match at Wimbledon against Julia Goerges 6-4, 7-6 (7-0) in one hour and 45 minutes on Court 3. After the first set, during which she lost a 5-1 lead, Jankovic called the trainer to have her right foot heavily bandaged. Although there was no apparent problem with her movement after that, the Serbian was forced to scrap for points in the fierce heat as Goerges kept her challenge going almost to the end. Jankovic lacked real consistency against the 20-year-old German whose first appearance in The Championships a year ago was marked by victory over the 24th seed Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia in three hours and 41 minutes, the second longest women’s singles match in Wimbledon’s history. Goerges was not going to create another upset today but she certainly tried, so much so that she was 5-2 ahead in the second set. What let Goerges down was a high unforced error count, almost twice as many as Jankovic, and in the end she had to pay for that. Jankovic, in her sixth Wimbledon, has been to the last 16 for the past three years in succession. She reached her first Grand Slam final last year at the US Open and ended the year at No. 1. Goerges almost finished the year inside the top 100 last year so she bought plenty of ambition to the court today and demonstrated it throughout the match to make Jankovic suffer. She started impressively with two service winners and an ace in her first service game. Jankovic then held serve and continued to build on that to lead 5-1. But she lost three games in succession as Goerges raised her game. A forehand winner from the sideline into an unprotected court to win the eighth game was an indication of what Goerges was capable of achieving. The German had her best chance when she held three break points in the 10th game but Jankovic ran astutely and produced five service winners to claim the set in 40 minutes. Jankovic started the second set with a break of serve but lost her own in the next game. Goerges was in stronger form as the set moved on and was well in the reckoning, with a lead of 5-2. But Jankovic broke back in the ninth game and knew that her chance was approaching. In the tiebreak Jankovic at last fully justified her ranking. She swept through without losing a point and a service winner saw her claim victory.