ROGERS CUP PRESENTED BY NATIONAL BANK
Date: 2008-07-28

ROGERS CUP PRESENTED BY NATIONAL BANK

July 28, 2008

Jelena Jankovic
MONTREAL, QUEBEC
The Moderator Questions, please.

Question Could you speak to me a bit about your tournament last weekend in Los Angeles. You were really close to earn the top spot in the rankings. Can you talk to us a bit about that. Is it disappointing?
Jelena Jankovic: No, it's not disappointing because especially I got injured in Wimbledon and I was trying to recover. I couldn't practice for more than two weeks. And so I only had a chance to train four days before Los Angeles, which is not enough, you know, to get in shape. And what I have done in Los Angeles is already a good result comparing to how much I've trained before that.
At the moment I'm just trying to get fit again and get in form. And each day I hope to get better and better. We will see how I will do.

Question How do you feel right now physically?
Jelena Jankovic: I'm healthy at the moment. But I need time, you know, to get stronger because my knee and my whole area around this is very weak. So it needs time to get, you know, more stable.

Question Coming here in Montréal, having been so close to become No. 1, are you motivated?
Jelena Jankovic: I am motivated. I just wish to stay healthy so that I can continue to play my game and keep improving. Hopefully my time will come. I don't really put pressure on myself. I had a lot of injuries this year, so I had a hard time. You know, I just want to enjoy my tennis and have fun out there.

Question Bartoli was saying she has a virus, and that 15 or 20 of the girls have an issue with being sick.
Jelena Jankovic: I got sick in Indian Wells. I had some type of bacteria which I couldn't get rid of for four months. You probably have seen me, you know, throughout since March. I was blowing my nose all the time. I was suffering out there. When you are not playing at a hundred percent, when you have issue, it's very hard to enjoy your tennis and really only think about how you have to play. You are thinking, Oh, my God, how am I going to hang in there? I'm not breathing as well as I should be. I'm getting more tired. I'm getting tired quickly.
It's very tough. The most important thing is to stay healthy. When you are at your hundred percent, you can really work hard and give your best on the practice court, and then you can perform at your best when you play matches.
So at the moment I am, you know, finally healthy. Now it takes time, you know, to just get my body in shape again, get fit and feel more comfortable and more confident.

Question Could you speak to us about Aleksandra Wozniak. If she gets through the first round, you'll be facing her. Did you have a chance to see her play?
Jelena Jankovic: Actually, I played against her last year in I think Australia. And I don't remember what was the score. I play so many matches, so it's very hard to remember (smiling).
But I haven't seen her play lately. I know she has won in Stanford, so she must be playing very well. But, you know, I cannot tell you much about her. I know that she's a nice girl. I see her around in the locker rooms or at the tournaments. But I don't really know much about her game.

Question Can you talk a bit about Montréal. We saw you were attracting a lot of people in training.
Jelena Jankovic: I am, you know, happy to be here. This is a nice city. A lot of people enjoy the tennis. I hope that we will all have a great week of tennis.

Question Is it tougher than you thought to grab that No. 1 spot? Seems like a lot of girls have been close.
Jelena Jankovic: It's okay. I mean, if it's meant to happen, it will happen. If not, you can keep trying all your life and it will never happen.
So, I mean, if you deserve it, you will get it. If you work hard, that hard work will pay off eventually, sooner or later. Like I said, I've been suffering with injuries, so it's very hard to be at your best, to be at your highest level when you're having some problems.
So when you don't have problems, when you can try to really reach your full potential, then you can say to yourself, I tried everything and I didn't make it and there's nothing I can do. But when you haven't reached that level yet, then you have the motivation, you have that desire to keep working and reaching that level eventually.

Question How badly do you want it?
Jelena Jankovic: I want to become No. 1 and I want to win a Grand Slam. I want to do all of those things. Those are my goals. That is my dream.
But actually, to be honest, when I began to play tennis when I was nine and a half, I actually never thought even of becoming a professional tennis player. So now being in this stage, you know, being one step away from No. 1 in the world, it's really amazing. You know, I'm very close. I hope that I can achieve it one day.

Question How special is it to realize the two top girls in the world are coming from Serbia?
Jelena Jankovic: It's really amazing we have No. 1 and No. 2 in the world. It's something that Serbia will maybe never have in the future. We don't have the best facilities in the world. We didn't have a tradition in tennis. We didn't have anybody to look up to coming out of that country and making it.
And now having three top players in the world, it's something amazing. It's a huge achievement for us. Hopefully we can somehow help the younger generations and inspire them and motivate them to come our way.
But we need to build some kind of tennis center so that the younger kids can develop their games and not having to go to other countries to improve and to get better.