Fourth-seeded Jankovic ousted by Kanepi in US Open third round

Jelena Jankovic's summer of misery came to a fitting end today at the US Open. During a windswept Day 6 the fourth seed, who had only earned one win in three tourneys during the US Open Series, was defeated by hard-hitting Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 7-6 (1) in the third round. The pair struggled to keep the ball inside the lines combining for 78 errors against only 32 winners. The 31st seed will face last year's semifinalist Yanina Wickmayer for a spot in the quarterfinals.

JJ blamed the tough, blustery conditions on-court for her struggles today but credited Kaia for managing her game better under the circumstances:

Q. How bad was the wind and how did you try to manage playing into the wind when you were against the wind?

JELENA JANKOVIC: Oh, the wind was really tough. The conditions were really, really tough, you know, to play. I had a really hard time, you know, hitting the balls. You know, obviously they were going all over the place. The wind was really strong, and she handled these kind of conditions a lot better than I did. You know, that was the case today. It was really tough to play tennis, because, I mean, it's tough to serve, tough to hit the balls. The balls move all over the place, and I had a really hard time over there. Unfortunately, I lost.

Q. How close to unplayable was it?

JELENA JANKOVIC: I don't know, but it's, you know, to be honest, you can't you know, I had a hard time serving. You toss the ball, and it was all over the place. And then you hit the ball one direction, it goes another. You're just getting ready to hit the ball and just moves away from you. So it was really hard out there. But like I said, she handled the wind a lot better than I did. She was the better player today. Congrats to her.

Regardless of the conditions this result is not a big surprise. As I mentioned earlier JJ has been struggling to find her best form all summer long after rolling her ankle in Portoroz. I think under normal circumstances (read: having actual confidence) the Serb would've out-steadied the Estonian in these tough conditions, but it wasn't to be today.

[Photo(s): Getty Images]