Marion Bartoli wasn't overawed by playing against the world's top lady baller in Melbourne and it showed.
The Frenchie reached her first quarterfinal at the Aussie Open, outhitting an out-of-sorts Jelena Jankovic and stunning the top seed 6-1, 6-4 by swatting 34 winners against only 17 for her Serbian foe. She'll face Russian Vera Zvonareva (who defeated Nadia Petrova) for a spot in the final four.
Bart, who famously upset then World No.1 Justine Henin in 2007 to reach her Wimbledon final, knew she had a chance to come out on top in this matchup:
You know, I was really confident because I played really well my last match against [Lucie] Safarova. I knew I could beat Jelena on a good day, it was just a matter of executing it, you know, play the right shot at the right time and doesn't make too much mistake. But I was not overwhelmed by the situation, and I just went for my shot and everything went in today. It was just a great match.
JJ's loss follows the shock, early round exits this week of Venus Williams + Ana Ivanovic from the year's first major.
Great win for Bart - no question - but JJ was clearly off her game here. I suppose the lack of preparation finally caught up with her and she'll likely be losing the keys to the WTA Penthouse as well.
So the big questions now is: WHO REALLY WANTS THIS THING?
Rich Rodriguez writes the tennis blog Down the Line!
