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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 8:57 a.m., Saturday, June 28, 2008

Tennis: Jankovic limps into 4th round at Wimbledon

By JOHN PYE
AP Sports Writer

WIMBLEDON, England — Jelena Jankovic hobbled into the second week of Wimbledon after injuring her knee. Whether she actually plays is another matter.

Jankovic, seeded second, faced break point in the second set Saturday after losing the opener. It seemed Wimbledon was about to become the first Grand Slam of the Open era with the top three seeded women failing to make the fourth round.

But Jankovic held off 17-year-old Caroline Wozniacki 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 despite slipping and hyperextending her left knee in the first set.

The 23-year-old Serbian said her knee is swollen and sore and she was to have a scan later in the day to determine if she can play Monday against Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn.

"I don't think it's that bad," she said. "I didn't break anything. I have pain on it but, you know, I don't play tomorrow, and hopefully now I can get some treatment and feel better for my next match."

Top-ranked Ana Ivanovic was ousted in the third round by China's Zheng Jie after saving match points in her second-round win over Nathalie Dechy. No. 3 Maria Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion and reigning Australian Open title holder, was upset in the second round.

"I was thinking maybe I'm the next one," Jankovic said, laughing.

After losing the first set and giving Wozniacki game point with a wayward backhand to open the second, Jankovic turned her back on the court and made a sign of the cross. She began to make fewer errors and started to dictate big points. Serving at 3-4, she saved two break points and then regained control.

Jankovic said she had never experienced knee problems before. She didn't feel comfortable with a heavy wrap on her knee in the third set and asked the trainer remove it after five games.

"It was getting numb, and I'm not used to it," she said. "I couldn't move. I just had even more pain."

She said the trainer was not pleased with her decision.

"I was taking a risk to get injured even more, but that's what I chose because I wanted to win," she said. "At the end, I did it."

Jankovic said she was struggling to adjust in the breeze and frustrated with her unforced errors — she made 16 of her 39 in the first set.

She said it's "very important to somehow find a way to win when you're not doing it your best" and was surprised Ivanovic and Sharapova had been unable to do so.

"Somehow the top players, the top seeds, even though they're not playing so well, somehow they get through these rounds and then they start playing better and better for the rest of the tournament," she said. "But the conditions are quite tough here. It's very windy. You have a lot of bad bounces. You know, the players that they played against, they just go out on court and really played their best tennis.

"Today I was lucky that I could get out of that and get through the match."

Serbia started the year with no Grand Slam title winners and now has one at the Australian (Novak Djokovic) and one at the French (Ivanovic).

With Djokovic and Ivanovic out, Jankovic and Janko Tipsarevic, who is unseeded in the men's draw, are bidding to make it 3-from-3 for Serbia this season.