Bartoli reaches Carlsbad semis, Jankovic upset
Marion Bartolibeat Christina McHale 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 to move into the semi-finals of the WTA Carlsbad.
Bartoli cut down her double-faults from a massive 18 the previous night to 11 against McHale.
"I really don't know why it's happening," she said of the faulty serve. "But it's hurting my whole motion. Maybe I'm not jumping as high as I'm able to do when I'm on my best.
"When you're going through those kind of patches you have to find a way somehow, that's obviously a good sign for me."
"I thought after I got the first set, if I could keep the pressure on, I could go through in two," Bartoli said. "But my serve let me down in second and I decided to focus on that shot first. I started to serve better. I was winning my serve easier and then I was able to put pressure on her serve and that was the turning point."
The Frenchwoman next plays Chan Yung-jan, who upsets Jelena Jankovic 6-7, 7-6, 7-5.
Jankovic was up a set and led 3-1 in the second when she appeared to come unravelled after Chan took a medical timeout.
A broken string on the final point did not help her cause and provided a fitting punctuation to the disappointing end.
Chan was two points away from losing in the second set when she forced the tiebreak, which she won.
In the decider, Chan ran off three straight games to take a 5-2 lead but Jankovic tied the match at 5 before Chan held serve for a 6-5 lead.
Chan then broke to claim her third career win against a top-20 player and ended the 3-hour, 13-minute quarterfinals match.
"It feels very special for me because she was a former No. 1," said Chan. "This is my best result since (stomach) surgery at the end of last year (which cost her three months off court.)
"This really means a lot for me, since I was in quallies. It could be one of the best matches in my career." She added.
"I'm frustrated and disappointed," said Jankovic. "I completely lost focus. It was so tough mentally and physically and my forehand let me down.
"I had the match under control and let it go. I let her come back, I messed up. When you're down you have to keep the focus."
"I was thinking, she's tired. She cannot walk any more. She's dead because of the sun," Jankovic said about the second set when her opponent asked for trainer. " Then I slowed down my arm.
"I didn't accelerate. I wasn't bending. I didn't make her work for anything."
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