Tennis-Jankovic shakes off rust to battle past King in LA

By Matthew Cronin

LOS ANGELES, July 23 (Reuters) - Top seed Jelena Jankovic overcame some early jitters before battling to a 7-5 6-2 victory over Vania King at the Los Angeles Classic on Wednesday, the Serb advancing to the third round on a day of several upsets.

Playing her first match since falling in the fourth round at Wimbledon, Jankovic staved off two set points in the 10th game against the unseeded American before taking control of the contest.

Jankovic is struggling to regain full fitness since suffering a torn meniscus in her knee during the Wimbledon defeat at the end of June, but she was able to take comfort from the fact the injury was not hurting her.

"I was little but behind the ball and not reacting as fast and not having then right balance on my shots," Jankovic told reporters. "But the most important thing is I don't have pain in my leg."

Should she go on to win the title, the Serbian will take over the world number one ranking from absent compatriot Ana Ivanovic.

"Four more to go and it's a lot of matches, but I will try my best" she added.

While Jankovic was able to survive a scare and remain in the draw, three seeds went down in second round matches.

Japan's Ai Sugiyama continued her good form with a 6-4 7-5 victory over Swiss hope Patty Schnyder, American Bethanie Mattek eased to a 6-4 6-0 win against Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic and China's Yuan Meng beat India's Sania Mirza 6-4 6-3.