About the shift in play in the second set Jankovic said, “When I was dictating and when I got the first strike, [Hantuchova] couldn’t do anything, but then I let… my game went down and I started, you know, not moving well. I wasn’t hitting the ball well.” Throughout the second and third sets, Jankovic kept shrugging her shoulders and looking towards her mother and coach in frustration. Hantuchova used that frustration to her advantage. “[It] helps when it’s hot and it’s a tough situation of the match to see that your opponent is maybe a little negative, and that just gave me a little more energy to fight even harder.” Hantuchova went on to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Where a change in tactics hurt Jankovic, it helped Vera Zvonareva turn what started out to be a tight match into a routine 7-5, 6-2 win over Melanie Oudin. “I think I made a few unforced errors in the beginning in the first set, and I sort of, you know, was playing the same pace all the time, just maybe trying to keep the ball in play too much. And I think I started slowly… Like, at the end of the first set, I started changing it up, mixing my shots, added some variety, playing with different spins, with different speed. And you know, I think that was good on my part.” Oudin agreed, saying, “It was, like, all of a sudden she started changing the pace up on me a lot and I felt like I could not get a rhythm, and I felt like I was changing everything after that,” she said.

Nagging Injuries
Jankovic was visibly disappointed in her effort during her post-match interview. And when asked about her left wrist, which was taped up, she said, “It’s hurting when I’m hitting the backhand, so a lot of times I lose a lot of power on the ball, and it’s hard to play, but I really did my best, and you know, there’s nothing I can do. Just get better.”

Vocal Coaches
Even though Jankovic, Wozniacki, and Oudin all called on their coaches during their matches, it did not stop their camps from interjecting words of encouragement in-between points. Many times, I heard “C’mon, JJ!” from Jelena’s mother Snežana Jankovic; “Bravo, Caro!” from Caroline’s father and coach, Piotr Wozniacki; and, “C’mon, Melanie!” from Oudin’s coach Brian de Villiers. Stosur’s camp even led the crowd in a few cheers of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!” during the last few changeovers of the match.

Ranking Goals
On her brief stay in the Top 10 after reaching the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells this year, Stosur said, “Once I started getting higher up the rankings, it became more of an achievable goal. It’s nice to say that you made it, and you can kind of tick that one off. And you’ve got to be able to stay there. And I’m back to 11 now, so I guess the goal is to go back in [the Top 10] and hopefully stay in there a little bit longer.”

Oudin said she has a goal to be seeded for this year’s French Open. “I try to make realistic goals, but this was a tough one because I knew I had points to defend here [after reaching the third round last year]; and, if I won tonight, I knew for sure I’d be seeded. So I know I’m borderline right now. So, I’m hoping I would be seeded. If not, I’m extremely close. So that’s pretty disappointing because I didn’t win tonight.”

Crowd Support
The crowd at the Family Circle Cup stayed neutral for the first three singles quarterfinal matches. However, the night match crowd was heavily in favor of American Melanie Oudin against Vera Zvonareva. When Oudin served at 5-5 in the first set, the crowd became quite boisterous. When one point ended, Zvonareva walked up to the chair and asked the umpire to tell the crowd to stop cheering during the points. The crowd booed her after the umpire made the announcement. The crowd continued to be unreceptive toward Zvonareva as Oudin lost the next six games in a row with intermittent boos when Zvonareva asked the umpire to check a mark, and cheers when she double faulted. “Actually it was pretty tough out there. Sometimes I would hit a great shot and I think it’s a great point, and I don’t have that many people cheering for me, so it was a little tough out there today,” Zvonareva said about the crowd support.

Looking Ahead to Saturday
Sam Stosur and Daniela Hantuchova are both looking to win their first title of the 2010 season. Stosur leads their head-to-head 2-1, and won their only clay meeting in Rome in 2006 in three sets.

Vera Zvonareva will hope to make her second Family Circle Cup final, having been Runner-up to Serena Williams in 2008 but she will have a tough match against Caroline Wozniacki, who is on an eight-match winning streak.

 

More photos from the 2010 Family Circle Cup

Photos: Christina Ward