Ex-champions advance at Indian Wells

Jankovic, Clijsters post straight-set victories to cruise into third round.

INDIAN WELLS:

Former champions Jelena Jankovic and Kim Clijsters cruised into the third round by posting straight-set victories at the WTA and ATP Masters 1000 event.

World number two Clijsters, who won in 2005 and 2003, swept past Alla Kudryavtseva with a dominating 6-2, 6-0 victory.

“I was happy to be playing out on centre court,” said Clijsters. “I’m at a stage now where I haven’t played for a while, and all the last few tournaments were indoors.

“So I kind of just have to get back into playing outdoors again and big arenas, and just get a feel of it all over again.”

Second-seed Clijsters needed just 52 minutes to beat Kudryavtseva and advance to play Italy’s Sara Errani who had earlier defeated Jarmila Groth 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.

Belgium’s Clijsters clinched her match when the Russian’s forehand return sailed wide left.

She hit three aces, clinched six of nine break-point chances and won 65 per cent of the total points against Kudryavtseva. Clijsters won the second set in a blistering 21 minutes. She can surpass world number one Caroline Wozniacki with a strong performance in Indian Wells.

Jankovic launches title defence

Meanwhile, defending champion Jankovic also displayed plenty of firepower, crushing Coco Vandeweghe of the US in straight sets 6-2, 6-1.

Jankovic began her title defence in equally dominating fashion, hitting four aces and winning 80 per cent of her first-serve points.

She is trying to become the first woman since Martina Navratilova in 1990-91 to win back-to-back Indian Wells titles.

“The last couple of weeks I have been starting to feel confident in my game,” said Jankovic.

Jankovic moves on to the third round where she will play Julia Goerges of Germany who beat Austrian Sybille Bammer 6-1, 6-3 on Friday.

In another key match, Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic – who won at this event three years ago – defeated Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-4, 6-2 in the evening session.

Raonic powers through

Meanwhile, in the men’s draw, Milos Raonic of Canada hammered 10 aces and used his thundering forehand to overpower Turkey’s Marsel Ilhan 6-2, 7-6 in his opening match.

“I feel good. I feel like I played a lot better today,” said Raonic. “My goal is to keep getting better and improving.”

Raonic unleashed a 148-mph ace in the second game of the second set against Ilhan in front of a crowd of 5,000 on an outer court.

Raonic advances to the second round, where he will face American Mardy Fish, who he beat last month in the ATP Memphis semi-finals before going on to lose to Andy Roddick in the final. AFP

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th,  2011.