ZURICH, Oct 16 - Jelena Jankovic's bid for a fourth straight title ended when the world number one lost 5-7 6-3 6-3 to unseeded Italian Flavia Pennetta in the Zurich Open second round.The Serb was playing her opening match of the week after receiving a first-round bye but showed little sign of having benefited from her brief rest since winning in Moscow.
Jankovic took the first set with two breaks of serve against one dropped service game of her own but appeared to be unsettled by a painful-looking fall in the 12th game.
She received treatment for a cut on her knee after dropping serve again early in the second set only to fall further behind when Pennetta hit a return winner to go 4-1 up.
Jankovic broke back but continued to look out of sorts, saving one break point at 4-2 before suffering a further break at 5-3.
The third set was evenly balanced with the first seven games going to serve before Pennetta grabbed the decisive break with a backhand winner down the line.
The Italian world number 17, who had lost all five of her previous meetings with Jankovic including last week's Moscow quarter-finals, kept her nerve to serve out the match as she finished off with an ace.
"I don't think I played that differently to when I lost to her last week," said Pennetta.
"When you're playing such a good player you have to take some risks. Sometimes you get the luck and sometimes you don't. I tried to match her style of play and I think that confused her a little."
In the previous round, Flavia beat WTA #13 Nadia Petrova 6-1,6-1; and last week in Moscow had a solid win against USA's Venus Williams 6-4,2-6,6-4.
<< Home