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Tennis - Former world no. 1 Jelena Jankovic and Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki were among the early winners on Thursday at the US Open in New York. 28 year old Jankovic reached the third round for the ninth time in ten years in New York as she ended the comeback of Russian Alisa Kleybanova.
Jankovic won 6-3, 6-2 in 1 hour and 13 minutes on Court no. 4. Kleybanova was playing her first grand slam since being diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma in May 2011. Jankovic has been playing of late and climbed all the way back to no.
11 in the world rankings. She was a finalist here in 2008. Jankoic will mext meet unseeded Japanese player Kurumi Nara, who upset the no. 19 seed Sorana Cirstea. 22 year old Nara, who is ranked no. 109in the world, won her fifth match having come from qualifying as she upset the 19th seeded Romanian 7-5, 6-1 in 84 minutes.
Nara is through to the last 32 of a grand slam for the first time in her career. Cirstea was her own worst enemy on Thursday as she piled up 35 unforced errors in the match as compared to just14 winners. Nara had 12 winners and 18 unforced errors in the match.
Also moving into the third round was Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova, who was a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Austrian Patricia Mayr-Achleitner. Shvedova could meet world no. 1 Serena Williams in the third round.