Jankovic, Molik, Li into Guangzhou QuartersPosted on September 29, 2006 GUANGZHOU, China -- Friday's quarterfinal schedule features all top four seeds and former Top 10 star Alicia Molik. No.1 Jelena Jankovic, No.2 Li Na, No.3 Anna Chakvetadze and No.4 Anabel Medina Garrigues will entertain Guangzhou International Women's Open fans with a combination of power and finesse.
Jankovic defeated Peng Shuai, 62 63, Thursday to set up a meeting with Molik. The Serb said her match against the Chinese crowd favorite wasn't as easy as the score indicated. "It was a tough match tonight," Jankovic said. "Even though the score looks like it might have been easier. It was hot out there, but I feel I'm playing well at the moment. Peng is a good player and she's beaten a lot of top players, so I was lucky to have beaten her tonight. The crowd was on her side, of course, so I was really playing against the whole stadium. It was a good atmosphere." Jankovic has beaten four Top 10 players over the past few weeks, including Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva (US Open) and Nadia Petrova (Beijing). Her next opponent, Molik, is a familiar foe. The Australian beat Jankovic four times over the last two years but Jankovic won their most recent encounter last year at Zurich. 2004 champion Li collected her ninth Guangzhou victory Thursday, ousting countrywoman Sun Tiantian, 62 61. The Chinese No.1, who faces Tzipora Obziler in her quarterfinal, said she hopes to play her friend and doubles partner Jankovic in the final. Jankovic and Li face No.2 seeds Sun and Li Ting in the doubles semifinal. "It's great for me to play in my home country," Li said. "The fans are so great to me. My husband is here with me as well, so that's really nice. I feel like I'm playing very well and I feel I have a chance to win the title. If I played the final against Jankovic, that would be great. We are good friends. I know I have two more matches to play before I could get to the final, so I'm still just concentrating on my quarterfinal match for now." Chakvetadze will have a tough match against countrywoman Olga Poutchkova, who defeated Jelena Kostanic, 61 61 on Thursday, and reached the Kolkata final last week. Medina Garrigues will face Chinese wild card Chen Yanchong, a 61 64 winner over No.8 seed Anastasiya Yakimova. Chen is playing her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour quarterfinal. -- WTA |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||