Jelena Jankovic of Serbia celebrates after defeating Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic during their singles match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London.(AP)
London — About an hour after flopping on her back and kicking her feet overhead to celebrate a stunning comeback against defending Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, Jelena Jankovic still was giddy.
“I cannot stop smiling. … I was very brave at the end. You know, here I am,” she said through a giggle. “Unbelievable.”
Jankovic kept using that word — “unbelievable” — as if trying to convince herself it were true that, despite never having much success on grass courts, she had put together a 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory Saturday over the No. 2-seeded Kvitova, who claimed the 2011 and 2014 titles at the All England Club.
“I was a little bit better at the end,” the 28th-seeded Jankovic said. “I was a little bit lucky, as well.”
Kvitova, who led 4-2 in the second set, had a difficult time processing the match, too.
“I’m not really sure what happened out there,” she said. “Suddenly, I was just missing (shots). So it was really unusual, probably, or weird. I can’t really explain.”
LAST 16 MATCH-UPS
After the traditional middle Sunday off, play resumes Monday. The top half of the women’s draw includes the most noteworthy match-up: Serena Williams vs. Venus Williams, meeting at a major for the first time since 2009. Those two, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka give that side of the bracket 34 Grand Slam titles.
And the eight women on the other half? They own zero major championships. That includes Jankovic, who meets No. 13 Agnieszka Radwanska next. Also Monday: No. 5 Caroline Wozniacki vs. No. 20 Garbine Muguruza, No. 15 Timea Bacsinszky vs. Monica Niculescu, and No. 21 Madison Keys vs. Olga Govortsova.
The men’s bottom-half match-ups, which were determined Saturday: seven-time champion Roger Federer against No. 20 Roberto Bautista Agut, 2013 champion Andy Murray against No. 23 Ivo Karlovic, No. 22 Viktor Troicki against Vasek Pospisil, and 2010 runner-up Tomas Berdych against No. 12 Gilles Simon, who beat fellow Frenchman No. 18 Gael Monfils in a match that was moved under the roof at Centre Court as darkness arrived.
BROWN’S RUN ENDS
Troicki ended the run of Dustin Brown, the qualifier from Germany who stunned Rafael Nadal in the second round. It marks the fourth year in a row that a man ranked No. 100 or worse beat Nadal at Wimbledon, then failed to advance further.
To the locals’ delight, Murray beat No. 25 Andreas Seppi of Italy, 6-2, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1. Early in the third set, Seppi got a visit from a trainer for his lower right leg and ended up taking six games in a row. Murray received turnabout-is-fair-play treatment for a stiff right shoulder after falling behind 1-0 in the fourth set, and then took the last six games.