Agnieszka Radwanska and Jelena Jankovic are set to face off against each other in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open 2014 Indian Wells after they both won their fourth round encounters on Tuesday.
Jankovic advanced first after ending a five-match losing streak to fellow former number one Caroline Wozniacki with a 6-3, 6-1 victory.
“I lost to her the last I don’t know how many times, but right now I’m playing some pretty good tennis. I went on court trying to wait for my chances,” Jankovic said. “Against her, if you go for too much, you just make so many errors and beat yourself. It happened to me a lot of times in the past. So I just tried to play solid and aggressive at the same time, waited for the right shots, and then executed.
“I just didn’t let her play how she plays. That was very important in the match today.”
The Serbian wasn’t even sure how she would play the match considering that she suffered a back injury a couple of nights ago.
“I kind of surprised myself,” she said. “Two nights ago I hurt my back, and yesterday I did not hit at all. I had a lot of treatment. I couldn’t put my shoes on. I went on court not knowing how I was going to feel, if I was going to be limited with my movement, if I was going to be able to play my game. But I did, and I was surprised. I was so happy and really pleased with how everything went out there today.”
Meanwhile, Agnieszka Radwanska overcame a tough challenge from Dubai 2014 finalist Alize Cornet of France with a 7-5, 6-3. Cornet had two set points in the first set but the Polish star came back just in time to snatch that crucial set and eventually completing the victory in straight sets.
“She’s been playing really great tennis the last couple of months, so I knew it was going to be tough,” Radwanska said. “I was really in trouble in the first set so I’m happy I could win today.”
Radwanska leads Jankovic in their head-to-head series at 4-1.
“We’ve played a lot of times against each other but our last match was a long time ago,” Radwanska said. “It’s going to be a good challenge for me, especially because she’s been playing some good tennis this year, and she played a really good match against Caroline today. I’ll have to play my best.”
