Roberta Vinci has claimed her first title of 2012 after battling to a straight-sets success at the Texas Open.
Italian sees off Jankovic in Dallas
Roberta Vinci has claimed her first title of 2012 after battling to a straight-sets success over Jelena Jankovic at the Texas Open.
The 29-year-old beat Jankovic 7-5 6-3 to gain the ideal preparation for the US Open, which starts in New York on Monday.
Vinci struggled with her serve for large parts of the match, struggling to get her first delivery on court, but Jankovic could not capitalise sufficiently in Dallas.
Former world No.1 Jankovic had her serve broken three times in the first set and twice in the second, while she double-faulted five times.
And while she made some inroads against Vinci's serve, the Italian was a deserving champion, landing her seventh WTA tour title.
Vinci will head to Flushing Meadows looking to improve on her previous best appearance at the final grand slam of the tennis year.
Last year she went further than she had managed before, reaching the third round, while at Wimbledon this year she had her best singles performance in a slam, getting to the fourth round before losing against Austrian Tamira Paszek.
Vinci stands to climb from her position as the world's No.23. Both she and world No.34 Jankovic are seeded for the US Open, and start against Urszula Radwanska and Kateryna Bondarenko respectively.
