Francesca Schiavone has recently been in the spotlight in the sporting world after she defeated the previous world no. 1, Jelena Jankovic at the Brisbane International this year. But her performance at the Brisbane International has been commendable even before that.
Defeating Jankovic was what made the tennis community, but she began the Australian Open by defeating the fifth seeded local, Samantha Stosur, in straight sets. Stosur gave up her serve five times before she was finally defeated 6-2, 6-4in an hour and a half by the no. 11 player. Stosur’s loss came soon after her defeat at the hands of the Czech player, Iveta Benesova.
Francesca Schiavone’s match against Jankovic in the quarter finals was a total nail biter. Jankovic was playing very well early on in the match. In the first set, she got an early lead of 3-0. But Schiavone rallied to get her own back in the match and the scores became 3-3.
Soon after, the Italian rallied amazingly to claim another break, but lost her advantage through her own fault when she had two double faults. These came soon after Jankovic decided to consult her coach on the court. At this point, even the best tennis betting tips websites were saying that punters should back Jankovic, but Schiavone soon managed to prove them all wrong.
Jankovic has recently changed her coach and other members of her management staff in a bid to go up from her current 14th ranking. The set ended 5-7 in favor of Jankovic. The next set began much like the previous one, with Jankovic looking to finish it off quickly. But they soon started to battle for the breaks and Schiavone broke her opponent’s serve when she was serving for the match at 5-3. Jankovic lost two match points and the set ended at 7-6.
Riding on her momentum, Schiavone dominated the final set, especially in terms of serve which was her major shortcoming in the earlier sets. She won the final set 6-3. Next up in the Brisbane International is Kaia Kanepi.