Beaten Jankovic unimpressed by Oudin
On the Wire
Former world number one Jelena Jankovic suffered a shock defeat to American teenager Melanie Oudin at Wimbledon and then bizarrely claimed the 17-year-old "cannot hurt you with anything".
Jankovic, who feared she would have to be rushed to hospital at the end of the first set after falling ill and briefly losing awareness of her whereabouts, suffered a three-set defeat on Court Three. She lost the third-round match 6-7 (10-8) 7-5 6-2 on the old Court Two, where many big names have suffered embarrassing defeats, but was far from flattering about Oudin's performance.
"From what I have seen, she can play if you let her play," said Serbian Jankovic. "But she cannot hurt you with anything. She doesn't have any weapons, from what I've seen."
She added: "She's a consistent and quite solid player. She doesn't make so many mistakes. But she doesn't do anything either, so it's like she's depending kind of on you."
Considering Oudin made 38 winners to Jankovic's 13, and looked to possess a heavy forehand, that analysis from the sixth seed seemed uncharitable.
Jankovic pointed to her health scare as a factor in the result.
"After the first set I felt really dizzy and I thought that I was going to end up in the hospital," she said. "I started to shake. I was losing my consciousness."
She decided to carry on but remarked she was "feeling quite weak" and had "no power".
"I was like a ghost, you know, white in the face," said Jankovic. "Really, I didn't know where I was.
"The physio came out and she asked me, 'Do you know your name?'. I just saw blurry. It was a really strange feeling. I was scared and I started to cry."
