Future Tennis Stars

Jelena Jankovic Is The New Top Ranked Women's Player

While she won’t win the title in Montreal this week, Jelena Jankovic will realize her childhood dream of becoming the top ranked player on the WTA Tour when the rankings are released on August 11th.

Jankovic will replace compatriot Ana Ivanovic who held the top ranking for 9 weeks from June 9th to August 10th. Jankovic will hold a very slim margin, only 8 points, over Ivanovic. Jankovic will have a total of 3620 points, Ivanovic will have 3612 points.

Jankovic has been a hot player in the last 12 months. Aside from winning Rome this past May, she reached the finals in Toronto last year as well as in Beijing and Miami. She has also reached 6 semifinals in the last year including the first two Slams of this year in Melbourne and Paris.

Jankovic will hold the dubious distinction of becoming the top ranked player without winning a Grand Slam. Kim Clijsters also had this distinction but did later win that elusive Slam title. Jelena will become the 18th player to be ranked #1.

Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina pulled ouf of the upcoming DFS Classic. Jankovic cited the same arm injury that gave her problems during the French Open while Safina pulled out with a bad back.

Jankovic and Safina join Maria Sharapova in withdrawing from the Wimbledon warmup. Jankovic beat Sharapova in last year’s final.

Earlier tonight, Jelena Jankovic beat Serena Williams, the defending champion, in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. On paper you would think this was a stunning result but if you saw any of the match you would know that Serena was incredibly flat and served poorly. Not to take anything away from Jelena’s win, she certainly did everything she needed to keep Serena from getting into the match, breaking her almost at will including the final game to take the match.

Jelena has now reached her third Slam semifinal where she will face either Justine Henin or Maria Sharapova. You just know that Jelena would rather face Maria. Against Sharapova Jankovic is 1-3 with her only win coming on grass last year at Birmingham. Against Henin though, she is 0-9 and all four meetings in 2007 were straight set wins for Henin.

It wasn’t always pretty but it was thrilling and 23 minutes shy of the record of the longest women’s match at the Australian Open. The record of course is the 3 hours 33 minute battle between Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and Chanda Rubin.

Let’s hope this is something that Jelena Jankovic and her fans don’t come to regret. After pulling her right hamstring muscle and retiring from her match against Tatiana Golovin, Jankovic came back to play doubles with Novak Djokovic to lead Serbia to a 2-1 win over France.

To her credit, Jankovic had an MRI to check out her hamstring before she played and found that there was no tear, just a strain. Still she risked further injury and her Australian Open could still be in doubt.

Throughout the final, Jelena was clearly limping and had to have tape replaced around her right thigh.

“I had such a motivation to win this match,” Jankovic said. “I have to thank Novak for running all over the court to help me.”

It’s unknown whether Jankovic will play in Serbia’s next tie against Argentina.

Jelena Jankovic lasted only 14 points in her Hopman Cup match against Tatiana Golovin on Wednesday. Jankovic pulled her right hamstring muscle early in the match and retired and put France up 1-0 against Serbia. Jankovic is almost certainly out of the doubles match and is in a race to get healthy for the Australian Open which begins on January 14th.

A few years ago, Russia dominated the tennis headlines but quickly faded as Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova went winless for a couple of years and Anastasia Myskina and Elena Dementieva dropped out of the headlines.

2007 saw the rise of Serbia with Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic getting the bulk of the press on the women’s side and Novak Djokovic quickly moving up the rankings on the ATP Tour.

At FutureTennisStars.com we’re going to be looking at those three players in greater detail and see what we can expect from them in 2008 starting with Jelena Jankovic.

Jelena Jankovic

2007 in Review
Jelena started the year ranked 12th and finished 3rd. Her biggest titles came in Charleston and Rome, both Tier I events. Her best Slam performance came at the French where she reached the semifinals. She won a total of 4 events.

What to expect in 2008
Jelena played, and won, an insane amount of tennis in 2007 so she will have a lot of points to defend. However, at the Slams and a the Tier I events, she has room to get more in 2008. She will be playing a toned down schedule so she will have more time to focus on her biggest goal, not winning a Slam, but beating Justine Henin. Jankovic was not able to beat the top ranked Henin in 7 tries in 2007. In Doha, Warsaw and Berlin, the matches went three sets and only two matches, Paris and Madrid, weren’t close with both being 6-2, 6-2 losses for Jankovic.

Jankovic can beat anyone else on tour so if Jankovic can beat Henin in a Slam, Jelena will most likely win the title. Let’s have a look at how Jankovic may fare at the Slams.

Australian Open
Jankovic started 2007 with a win in Auckland and the finals in Sydney so she can quickly adjust to the time and weather, the two big things that can affect the top players if they don’t prepare for Melbourne right. Jankovic just happened to run into a hot Serena Williams last year but this year could be different. Jelena will be determined to set the tone for 2008 and a strong showing is what she will get in Melbourne. I doubt she will overcome Henin at the Australian but a semifinal finish is what we should see.

French Open
Her best chance will come at the French where her clay game can neutralize the power of the other players and give her the opportunity to use her ball control to keep her opponents off guard. Even though Henin is extremely tough on clay, definitely the best on tour, Jelena should still pull an upset in Paris. Her strong showing in Charleston, Rome and reached the semis in Berlin. No woman has won 4 straight French titles in the Open Era and I don’t think Henin will do it in 2008. Jankovic wins the French Open and should be ranked No. 2 after the win as she is less than 300 points behind Kuznetsova.

Wimbledon
Jelena won in Birmingham and reached the finals in the Netherlands before Wimbledon last year so she can handle the transition from clay to grass better than most. An unthinkable loss to Bartoli last year (but hey, no one saw Bartoli coming) stopped her from challenging for the title. I don’t think that will happen again and Jankovic should have a clear path to the semis at least. There, she should face Ivanovic, Sharapova perhaps even Golovin. The player that should give her the most trouble here is Ivanovic and I don’t see Jankovic winning against her countrywoman on grass. A semifinal appearance at least should be her result here, but most likely not the title.

US Open
The US Open is a symbolic place for Jankovic. She completed her turnaround in 2006 in New York and she played a great match against Williams in the quarters last year. Even though Jankovic can play on the hard courts, she will face a lot more contenders in New York than probably at any other Slam. Henin, Sharapova, the Williams’, Ivanovic and others could challenge Jankovic. Still at the end of a long year, in the heat and on hardcourts, anything can happen. Henin isn’t as dominant in New York, Sharapova is prone to mental lapses, the Williams’ may not be ready depending on how much they do or do not play. Injuries play a large factor in New York so if Jelena can stay healthy, she will be one of the two or three big favourites. It’s hard to predict a win without seeing a draw, but I would say a title isn’t out of the question depending on her health.

Rankings
Jankovic can make up some ground on Kuznetsova in the rankings not only at the Slams but also at the Tier I events. In Tokyo, San Diego, Indian Wells and Miami, Jankovic lost early. Unless Henin really falls apart and Jelena tears up the schedule, it’s doubtful that Jankovic could overtake Henin in the rankings.

Hurdles
Jankovic’s biggest hurdle will be the mental aspect. For someone who almost never gets hurt, she is prone to mental letdowns if she is up in the third set. Her serve is the weakest part of her game, something she knows and has committed to working on.

In Summary
Australian Open - Semifinals
French Open - Champion
Wimbledon - Semifinals
US Open - Champion

Tomorrow: Ana Ivanovic

The season isn’t over yet but Jelena Jankovic was given the ACES award for 2007. The ACES award goes to “the player who consistently goes above and beyond to promote women’s tennis in the media, the community and beyond.”

“I am honoured and delighted to receive this award,” Jankovic said. “Tennis has been the joy of my life and I am very happy to be able to give back to the sport and help it grow. I am looking forward to participating in the ACES program again next year and hope to be able to make a larger difference on and off the court.”

The WTA Tour keeps points for this award and Jankovic accumulated 660 points. Ana Ivanovic was second with 425, Justine Henin had 395 and Tatiana Golovin was fifth with 335.

Once again, Justine Henin beat Jelena Jankovic and this time, it wasn’t close. Henin beat Jankovic 6-2, 6-2 and it puts Henin up 2-0 in round robin play and puts Jankovic in a hole 0-1. Jankovic should cheer up though as she will have to play Williams and Chakvetadze (who are playing now and Chakvetadze took the first set 6-4) and Jankovic is capable of beating both which is exactly what she will need to do. Another loss and Jankovic could be out.