My heartfelt condolences to Jelena Jankovic for the passing of her beloved grandma.The night before her second round match, her grandmother had passed away back home in Serbia.
Her heart and mind was simply not at the US Open after the hearbreaking news.
As a result, she lost to Yaroslava Shvedova, 3-6, 7-6, 6-7.
“I was very sad and emotionally I was really not on court,” Jankovic said.Jankovic planned to fly to Serbia today to join her mother, who left New York on Wednesday to return home.
“I really tried my best to be there and to try to play, but it was really hard."
“You could see I was not happy on the court. I was really suffering. I tried to think about my tennis, but I felt like I was so late and so slow.”
Jankovic said she didn’t know many details after talking on the phone with her mother.
“I couldn’t really speak,” she said.Anyway, kudos to Shvedova for advancing to the third round after a gutsy effort against Jankovic.
“I was just crying.”
“When you are sad, when you are down, you’re not the same person,” she said.
“You don’t move as well. You don’t hit the ball as well. My head wasn’t really there. I just was so—it was like a shadow of myself."
“But, you know, what can you do? Life goes on and I have to try to stay hopefully positive as much as I can, get through this.”
(Via AP)
