Not many people beat both Williams sisters in a tournament. Even fewer do it in the space of 24 hours.

And Jelena Jankovic must be unique – inflicting the worst defeat of Venus’ career before surviving a match point against Serena.

“Beating two Williams sisters in two days is amazing and so I am very proud of myself,” smiled the No.7 seed minutes after coming off court. “I just fought her hard. I was down quite a bit in the third set, 2-0 and then 40-0 and then 5-4 for her, then she was serving for the match point. Then 5-2 in the tie-break and so I was down a lot and so I just tried to stay as positive as I could.”

“A lot of matches throughout my career I have saved match points and then won a match,” the 2007 and 2008 champion continued. “When this happens, then you just have to find it and believe in yourself and the match is not over until it is over and so you still have to stay in the match and play a point and anything can happen. That is basically what happened today.”

She also rode her luck, miraculously saving match point with a shot which came off the frame of her racquet. “I just hit the ball and it was going up and I said ‘Please get in, please get in, please get in the court!’ and then I was saved. Then she hit the next ball and I cannot remember what happened but I did win that point so it was really amazing and perhaps a little bit lucky to win that point after framing the ball. She did a really good serve and I returned that ball so I was very lucky to win that one. Sometimes you need luck as well and not only skill.”

It is an old adage that the better someone plays, the luckier they seem to get. Jankovic has certainly earned her luck this week.