“For a while there he was just playing extremely high-risk tennis, and you figure if someone plays that
way long enough they’re going to start missing a little bit,” Roddick said.
Tomorrow in the final, Jankovic meets the fourth seed, Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia who defeated Jie Zheng of China 7-6(7-3), 7-5 in the semifinals. Roddick is to take on Dudi Sela of Israel who defeated seventh seeded Rainer Schuettler of Germany 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals.
Sela, ranked 92nd in the world, earlier in the week upset both top seeded David Ferrer of Spain and Tommy Robredo also of Spain.
“For the final I have nothing to lose,” said Sela, who realized Roddick would be a heavy favorite to win the title.
Meanwhile Roddick announced he would donate $25,000 to victims of the May 12th earthquake in the Sichuan province of China.
In the women's final tomorrow, Jankovic gets a rematch against Kuznetsova who defeated her last week in Tokyo and leads her head to head 4-2.
A title this week in Beijing for Jankovic would cut world number one and American Serena Williams' WTA Tour rankings points lead over word number two Jankovic to only 21 points. Williams currently has 4091 rankings points while Jankovic has 3885 points. Both Williams and Jankovic are entered next week in the WTA Tour tournament at Stuttgart.
“Of course, I would like to regain that number one position,” Jankovic said. “For me the goal is to end the year as the number one player in the world. I’m really working hard, really trying to win as many matches as possible, win titles.”
