“The better one will win,” said Jelena Jankovic two days ago. In this fourth-round match between two players tied—and, too often, tied down—by the top ranking, the better one was Caroline Wozniacki. The current No. 1 and top seed beat the former No. 1 and 13th seed, 6-0, 7-5, in a 103-minute match that started as a blowout and, with nowhere to go but up, did just that.
Wozniacki will advance to the quarterfinals, where she’ll play another former No. 1, defending champion Kim Clijsters, and have a chance to keep the No. 1 ranking she’s held longer than any active player but Serena Williams.
The Planet Tennis Indicator for this match is 50. As in the number of errors off Jankovic’s racquet. Some were forced by Wozniacki’s superior defense, others a result of Jankovic’s attempt to be aggressive, but many—too many in the first set—were just plain silly. In all, Jankovic hit 26 winners against those 50 errors, while Wozniacki made 12 winners against 15 errors.
You can’t blame Jankovic for the first set—she wasn’t there. Sure, she sometimes moved as well as her glory days and hit more aggressively, but the errors? Downright cringeworthy. Wozniacki played well, making those short angles she’s been working on, defending impeccably and hitting deep. Though it was hard to appreciate her because it was so hard to look away from the error fest at the other end.
Jankovic played far better in the second set. She was broken thrice and broke twice, the second time after fighting off a match point when a tight Wozniacki tried to serve it out. Jankovic reined in the errors and approached well. About halfway through, Wozniacki got tentative and hit shorter. Ultimately, Wozniacki outfought Jankovic and served it out, fittingly winning on a Jankovic error with her signature shot, the down-the-line backhand.
Their head-to-head is now 4-4. They’re among six current and former No. 1s in the draw, but have more in common than that. Like Ricardo Sanchez, who coaches Wozniacki but worked with Jankovic until the end of last season. (“How did that change happen and do you want any revenge on him?” Jankovic was asked in press. She played it right, saying, “No, you know, that’s the life on the tour.”)
And we might as well get it over with—as one Tennis Channel commentator put it in an earlier match, when the network splashed side-by-side pictures of Jankovic, Wozniacki, and Dinara Safina, reminiscent of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Nicole Richie mugshots. Jankovic was asked about ‘it’ in press: “Every time Caroline comes in here, she gets asked about being No. 1 and not winning a Grand Slam title. Can you sympathize with the extra pressure that that brings?” Jankovic could: “I think sometimes you just should let it go… she’s gonna win, you know, those big tournaments in the future sooner or later.” Today, Jankovic, who lost fewer games through the first three rounds here than anyone but Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka, failed to extricate Wozniacki from her infamous ranking.
Next up for the winner is a former No. 1 who owns several of the No. 1 thing on Wozniacki’s career to-do list. You could see today that Wozniacki’s improved, that she has a shot. But, as Jankovic said before this match, “we’ll see.”
—Bobby Chintapalli