Beaten Jankovic given lesson by student

Serbian fifth seed Jelena Jankovic learnt some harsh lessons on Monday after Romanian high school student Sorana Cirstea beat her 3-6 6-0 9-7 in the French Open fourth round.

Jankovic, who had reached the Roland Garros semi-finals for the past two years, blamed a lack of confidence for allowing herself to be outfoxed by the 19-year-old's devastating net play.

The Serbian former world number one served for the match in the 11th game of the third set and was two points away from victory but the tenacious world number 41 broke when Jankovic hit long.

"I should've closed the match out at 6-5. I had 30-0, what more can I ask for myself?" she told a news conference.

"I should have gone for more and I should have risked. But I didn't do that and it cost me the match. "I need my confidence back. I need to go for my shots, I need to have that belief that they're going to go in."

Jankovic, who said her confidence had been hit by a shaky start to the year in which she lost the number one ranking, stormed through the first three games before being broken in the seventh.

She immediately broke back and claimed the set when Cirstea hit long. She never got into the second set as Cirstea made regular charges to the net to send a series of winners past her.

Cirstea, who lists geography and English as her favourite subjects at school, unleashed a sizzling crosscourt backhand to reach her first grand slam quarter-final against Australian 30th seed Samantha Stosur.

PARIS, Reuters