Now or Never?

To me the match of the tourney on the women's side was the Jankovic vs. Schiavone match. This match was a huge opportunity given the decimated draw. With the top 3 seeds, Wozniacki, Clijsters and Zvonareva all losing, Jankovic and Schiavone would have to be favored due to their experience on the grandest stages. Schiavone is of course the defending champ here while Jankovic is a former number one and 3 times a semi-finalist at RG and a perennial top-10'er. In fact, Jankovic is the longest residing top 10 player having been there since Jan 2007. Losing this match would end that streak however as she is defending points from a SF at RG last year. The match started very late due to a 4 and a half hour men's match. In the first set Jankovic had so many break point chances and game points on her own serve, yet found herself 5-1 down. She didn't take her chances on the big points and despite getting a break back, went down 6-3. In the second, she was cracking the backhand inside out and down the line to put Schiavone off-balance. Schiavone also started leaking errors. The JJ serve was working really well for her too. And after a 6-2 second, we headed to a deciding third. It was a see-saw affair and JJ put herself in a winning position. At 4-4, she was serving and had multiple game points. If she could just hold on, all the pressure would be on Schiavone to stay in the match having been broken so many times already. Then the wheels came off. She could not buy a first serve at all. She threw in some doubles. Her backhand wasn't stinging anymore and although JJ has never been known for her forehand, she went into a shell almost and was barely putting anything on the FH. It was honestly worse than Wozniacki's... Despite all this, JJ still had opportunities to win the game but by playing passively and pushing on every shot, this allowed Schiavone the chance to dictate play, and to her credit, she took it. It's all about who takes their chances, and just as she did last year, Schiavone knows when an opportunity presents itself. After laying an egg in last years SF against Stosur (a golden opportunity to win that maiden slam), Jankovic comes up empty again. JJ has had her chances but instead of going after it, she has let these opportunities slip. You have to wonder if JJ has it in her but after today's performance, now or never is starting to look a lot like never.