The Better Half and I watched a high-quality quarterfinal match between Jelena Jankovic and Nadia Petrova at the East West Bank Classic in Carson, CA at the Home Depot Center.
It was an interesting match. Jankovic is the perennial under-achiever who is fun to watch because she is as neurotic and demonstrative as they come. Petrova has a very aesthetically-pleasing game, but makes the usual mental lapses at the important times.
Fortunes swung wildly throughout the match. At one point you would think Jankovic would run away with it, and then in the very next point, she would slump her shoulders in apparent defeat.
Petrova had her chances, many chances, but made some pretty big errors (usually on the volley) and Jankovic wrapped up the match 7-5 6-4. Both players alternated between crisp, probing groundstrokes, and basic errors, but it was very entertaining right up towards the end.
Things got interesting when the Tennis version of the ESPN Game Day crew showed up to conduct an interview with Jankovic.
Pam Shriver (not a very pleasant interviewer) asked Jankovic about her always "talking" on court and about her knee injury and things got a bit testy. Jankovic continued to explain herself well after the cameras were off, and it was a little tense all around. In fact, Cliff Drysdale, Mary Joe Fernandez, and Shriver did not seem to interact at all during the breaks, so it was an interesting insight into what happens behind the scenes at these things.
Cliff did stop to pose for a picture for me. Nice guy!
The players themselves didn't really have time to stop for us, so we made do.LINKS
AFP: Jankovic Books Semi Final Berth
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