Jelena Jankovic has led Serbia to a one – nil lead over Russia in their Federation cup tie. The number one Serb seed outclassed yer younger Russian opponent Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, taking her down in strait sets.
The match, which is being played in Russia, is one of the Semi Finals currently being played with Italy and the Czech Republic contesting the other.
Despite her high ranking, this is the first time that the highest ranked female tennis player in the world has managed to beat Pavlyuchenkova. The fact that she hasnt beaten the Rusisan before can’t be put down to lack of opportunity with the two players haveing previously played three times.
“I lost three of my previous meetings with Nastia (Pavlyuchenkova) at hardcourts,” said Jankovic said. “This time we played in red clay and though the court was not perfect it fits my tennis better than any other surface.”
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Women’s tennis these days has become synonymous with the word ‘grunt’ with many, rather most of the top tennis players screaming their lungs out when hitting a shot, sometimes courting controversy as was done by Serena Williams at the US Open Final last year and sometimes being mimicked by the fans, just for the fun of it and one woman who is not too keen to cut down on her screaming is Serbian tennis ace Jelena Jankovic. Jankovic has not been in the best of forms recently, having been knocked out of the WTA Tour event at Indian Wells recent quite unceremoniously but she is not one to take into account what others think of her grunt and cut it down.
According to Jankovic, it is something that comes to her naturally when she hits a shot and there is no way that she is going against her natural instincts in trying to make it more comfortable for the fans or her opponent for that matter. Jelena Jankovic, however, did point out that it was not her but Russian tennis beauty Maria Sharapova who has the strongest grunt in the world of women’s tennis at moment.
She did happen to mention that although she grunts herself, it is extremely hard to concentrate amidst the loud screams of the opposition player. But that still doesn’t change anything and according to her, in the world of power tennis, it has become a part of the tennis culture.
Jelena Jankovic very candidly replied that during the days of Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graff, it was all about skill but today, one has to rely on skill and power and when a powerful shot leaves the racket with a lot of force generated from the body, the scream or the grunt comes as a natural reaction.
The former world No 1 tennis player Jelena Jankovic is all set to tear up the town in Malaysia. She will be celebrating her 27th birthday in Kuala Lumpur during the BMW Malaysian open tennis championship and is very much excited!
The 27 yr old Serbian has won 12 tour titles before but had never won a grand slam title. The intellectual and compelling Jankovic has always loved and enjoyed working things out for herself. The tournament will take place at Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club. She is expected to win the tournament and we all hope she does – her last victory was in Indian Wells.
Before her loss to Polish fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the Dubai tournament, she won against US Open champion Samantha Stosur. That was a great achievement for her! After her triumph over Stosur, everyone started referring her as the former world number one, on a slow slide. These types of silly remarks meant nothing for this 27 yr old charming lady – her main aim is to regain the number one spot and that needs her to do a lot of practice. Currently she is ranking No 14.
After her recent losses, she thought of appointing a coach who can guide her back to the top, and started working with Henner Nehlar.
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Serbian tennis player Jelena Jankovic has pulled out of the upcoming Open GDF Suez that is to be held in Paris, France. The 13th ranked women’s player in the world has been suffering from thigh injuries for most of her career and this has prompted her to pull off from first rate or Premier Level events of the Women’s Tennis Association or the WTA more than once during her long career.
Jankovic was slated to be a part of a star studded field at the Open GDF Suez in Paris as the fourth seed in the tournament but playing for Serbia in the Fed Cup last week has taken its toll on the former world number one on her physical fitness. Although the 13th ranked player in the world Jelena Jankovic led Serbia to an emphatic victory in their Fed Cup tie against a much depleted Belgian side, she did suffer from thigh problems during one of her singles matches in the tie and it is that injury that has made her withdraw from the tournament.
The Serbian was extremely disappointed at not being able to compete against a star studded field ready to take to the court at Paris and her disaapo9intement was evident from her statement at the press conference where she announced her withdrawal. Jankovic stated that she had hoped that she would be able to play in the tournament after getting treatment.
Jelena Jankovic has not had the best of starts to 2012, having already lost in three matches in the tournaments that she competed in this year. She lost in the quarter finals of the Brisbane International and in the second round of the event at Sydney and lost out to then world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the fourth round of the Australian Open, starting the year on a whimper than with a bang.
Jelena Jankovic’s title hopes were dashed at the Australian Open as she was swept away 6-0, 7-5 against world number one Caroline Wozniacki.
The first set saw the top seed in fantastic form, and Jankovic had no reply to the onslaught. However as the game progressed, the Serb improved and she gave Wozniacki a few problems in the second set. Having been demolished in just 34 minutes in the first set, Jankovic upped her game and broke twice to put some pressure back onto the favourite, who has struggled to cope with nerves in the big games sometimes.
This wasn’t enough though, and the Dane did enough to avoid a tie break in the second set, progressing to the quarterfinals.
Wozniacki’s statistics for the match were impressive – putting 72% of her first serves into play, and keeping unforced to errors to 15. Despite this, Jankovic did as much to lose the match as Wozniacki did to win it, with a massive 50 unforced errors and 7 double faults. The Serb can’t expect to win matches at the top level playing such a loose game, and Jelena will be determined to improve her focus and concentration before she competes again.
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Jelena Jankovic, once the world no. 1, has had a bad run in the various tournaments of late. She made it to the quarter finals of the Brisbane International after her opponent had to pull out due to an injury.
After just 50 minutes, her opponent Julia Georges had to retire when she was leading the scores 6-1, 3-1. So Jankovic might have been out of the Brisbane International earlier, had it not been for her opponent’s unfortunate injury.
Following this, she proceeded to the quarter finals where she faced the Italian Francesca Schiavone. She started the match well, dominating the first 3 games in the first set. She was up 3-0, but the Italian rallied to get back and broke Jelena’s serve to get the score back to 3-3.
Jankovic lost her lead and fell behind as the Italian rallied brilliantly to get the next break of serve. Score at 4-3, the Italian lost her lead by having two double faults. This came soon after Jelena called her coach on court for a consult. Having won the first set 5-7, Jelena started the next set strongly, just like she did in her first set. But Schiavone wasn’t going to give up the fight. She battled for her breaks of serve.
Jelena was serving for the match at 5-3 (and being backed by thousands of fans placing tennis bets online) when her serve was broken. Soon after, Jelena conceded two match points to lose the set 7-6. Riding high on the victory of the last set, the Italian Schiavone completely dominated the final set, mostly on basis of her serves.
This was bizarre, considering that she had been struggling with her serves in the first two sets. Jelena lost the match 5-7, 7-6, 6-3, but live to fight another day – and will hopefully hit top form in the Australian Open.
Inspite of her form, Jelena Jankovic has just been signed up to be the face of an international sporting brand.
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April 23, 2012 9:14 am | 
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