WIMBLEDON
LONDON : Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn was in seventh heaven yesterday when she stunned second seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-2 at Wimbledon and will now make her first appearance in a quarter-final at a Grand Slam event.
''Can I say wow, wow, wow?'' Tamarine said after booking a quarter-final berth against defending champion Venus Williams.
It was seventh time lucky for the unseeded Thai, who had lost in the fourth round six times at the All England Club.
The first Thai to have reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam event, Los Angeles-born Tamarine is guaranteed 93,750 (about 6.2 million baht).
Tamarine, who turned 31 in May and is the oldest woman left in the draw, screeched with delight and sank to her knees after Jankovic hit a forehand long on the first of three match points.
The world No. 60 took full advantage of another erratic display from Jankovic, who appeared to be moving freely despite suffering a knee injury when struggling to overcome third-round opponent Caroline Wozniacki on Saturday.
A break in the sixth game was enough for Tamarine to go on and clinch the opening set, and at 2-1 to the Thai in the second both players called for treatment.
Jankovic received attention to her troublesome left knee while Tamarine lay face down on the court as a trainer worked on her back problem.
The timeouts made little difference to the course of the match and a dejected Jankovic had no answer to the scuttling Thai's consistency from the baseline.
Jankovic's loss means that none of the top three women reached the quarter-finals _ the first time that's happened at a Grand Slam tournament in the Open era. World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic and third seed Maria Sharapova were shock losers last week.
Also advancing was Chinese wild-card entry Zheng Zie, who followed up her upset of Ivanovic by beating 19-year-old Hungarian Agnes Szavay 6-3, 6-4 to secure her first Grand Slam quarter-final berth. AGENCIES
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