Jovanovski’s tale of two Carlsbad’s

 

Originally published on: 02/08/11 10:09

We’ve all been guilty of misreading the odd direction now and then. Taking a left instead of a right, hopping on the wrong bus in a blind rush or sleeping through a stop or two on a train, but few of us will have taken quite such a wrong turn as Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski.

The 19-year-old Serb ended up a colossal 900 miles away from her desired location as she tried to travel to the San Diego Open this week.

Jovanovski picked out the wrong town on the world map and travelled to Carlsbad, New Mexico, instead of Carlsbad, California, for the WTA International tournament on Monday.

After reaching the quarter-finals at the Citi Open in Washington, the 19-year-old flew to Dallas, then on to Albuquerque and finally Carlsbad – a small desert town in New Mexico – by mistake.

She realised the error of her ways after waiting for 15 minutes in a near-empty airport, where she phoned the tournament transport service.

“They said they were at the airport and looking for me,” explained the Belgrade native. “I said I was the only person here.”

After her epic journey, Jovanovski spent the night in New Mexico before taking an early flight to California in time for her first round match with Roberta Vinci. But with just half an hour to prepare for her clash with the Italian, Jovanovski’s second Carlsbad experience was little better than her first – she lost her opener 3-6 6-4 6-1.

Hit the link for more troublesome travel tales from WTA and ATP Tour high-fliers.

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