Jelena Jankovic Tennis Player Online Information at WagerWeb Sportsbook

Jelena Jankovic Tennis Player Information at WagerWeb Sportsbook

Jelena Jankovic born on February 28, 1985 is a Serbian professional female tennis player. Jankovic entered the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) top 15 in late 2006 when she reached the semi-finals of the US Open. At the beginning of 2007, she broke into the top 10 in the WTA rankings, and entered the top 3 when she reached the semifinals of the French Open. She won the Mixed Doubles title at Wimbledon 2007 with partner Jamie Murray. Career Early career Jankovic learned her first tennis skills in Tennis Club 'Red Star'. As a nine-and-a-half year old she was introduced to tennis by her elder brother and fitness coach Marko.

She was later trained at the Tennis Academy of Nick Bollettieri. As a junior she won the 2001 Australian Open. In 2001, she started to play on the WTA Tour; she reached the second round at her first tournament at the Indian Wells Masters.

In October 2003, Jankovic entered the top 100 at No. 90 for the first time after winning her first ITF title in Dubai. Three months later, Jankovic garnered her first top 10 win against Elena Dementieva 6-1, 6-4 in the first round of the 2004 Australian Open. She then lost to Jill Craybas in three sets in the second round. In May, Jankovic won her first WTA title, a Tier V event, in Budapest, defeating Martina Suchá in the final 7-6, 6-3. Following her win in Budapest, she reached No. 51 in the world. Elsewhere in her 2004 season, she defeated top 20 players Nadia Petrova (twice), Vera Zvonareva, Patty Schnyder and Paola Suárez. Jankovic finished 2004 ranked No. 28 in the world.

2006

In 2006, Jankovic lost ten straight matches, not winning a match from late January into early May. She reached the quarterfinals of the Italian Open before losing to Venus Williams in three sets. She reached the semi-finals in Strasbourg, retiring against Vaidišová in the second set.

At the French Open, she upset the Number 25 seed Marion Bartoli before losing to World No. 1 Amélie Mauresmo 6-3, 6-3. At Wimbledon, she stunned defending champion Venus Williams in three sets in the 3rd round, on the "Graveyard Court." She then lost to Anastasia Myskina 6-4, 7-6.

Following her run at Wimbledon, she reached her fifth career final at the JP Morgan Chase Open, defeating Sania Mirza, Ana Ivanovic, and then Serena Williams in the semifinal, becoming the only player in 2006 to defeat both Williams sisters. Ultimately, she lost to Elena Dementieva in the final. The final outcome was 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. In the third set, Dementieva was actually leading 5-0 before some spirited play and aggressive shot-making earned Jankovic the next four games. However, she was unable to even the score and fell short.

At the 2006 US Open, Jankovic defeated Vaidišová in the third round, defeated 2004 US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth, and beat 2004 US Open and French Open finalist Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinal, she lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne 4-6, 6-4, 6-0, after having been up 6-4 4-2, and one point away from 5-2 in the match. Jankovic appeared to lose her focus after arguing with the chair umpire when the umpire refused to offer an opinion as to whether a service call had been correct, suggesting that Jankovic could use one of her electronic challenges. After the self-induced distraction, Jankovic lost ten consecutive games and a chance to make the final.

At Jankovic's first tournament following the US Open, she reached the semifinals at the Tier II China Open, losing to Amélie Mauresmo 6-1, 3-6, 7-6. At 6-5 in the third, Jankovic served for the match, but was broken at 15-40.

After Beijing, Jankovic made the Guangzhou semifinal, retiring against Anna Chakvetadze 0-2 in the second. Then, in her last four events of the year, she reached the quarterfinals three times, losing to Kuznetsova, Vaidišová and Poutchkova, respectively.

Due to her success in the latter part of the year, Jankovic finished the season ranked just outside the Top 10, at No. 12.

2007

To begin the 2007 season, Jankovic won her second title at the Tier IV ASB Classic tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, defeating Vera Zvonareva in the finals. In her second tournament, the Tier II Medibank International event, Jankovic reached her second final in a row, defeating 7th ranked Martina Hingis, home favorite Australian Sam Stosur, No. 1 seed Amélie Mauresmo, and Nicole Vaidišová along the way for a 9-0 start to 2007. In the final, Jankovic was defeated by Kim Clijsters in an intense and controversial match. In the final, Jankovic again lost her cool over a number of calls that went against her and ended up losing after serving for the match in the second set. If Jankovic had won the finals match against Clijsters, she would have entered the top 10. She made it to the fourth round of the Australian Open, where she was eliminated by the eventual champion Serena Williams 6-3, 6-2. Though she lost in the fourth round, she entered the top 10 at number 10 for the first time in her career.

At the first Tier I event of the year in Tokyo, Japan, Jankovic defeated Zheng Jie in straight sets in the second round, but ended up losing to countrywoman Ana Ivanovic 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinal. In late February 2007, she entered the 2007 Dubai Tennis Championship and reached the semi-finals relatively unchallenged, before she retired from the match with an ankle injury against Amélie Mauresmo. The following week, she continued her streak in the Middle East at Doha, reaching the semifinals again, losing to Justine Henin in 3 sets; the result brought her ranking to a career-high #9. At Miami, Jankovic reached the third round before losing to Italian Mara Santangelo in three sets 6-2, 6-7, 4-6.

Jankovic kicked off her clay court season as the number two seed at a tournament in Amelia Island. She lost in the quarter-final to fellow Serb Ana Ivanovic in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3. She then travelled to Charleston for the Family Circle Cup, winning her first Tier I title, defeating Venus Williams in a semifinal match that lasted more than 2 1/2 hours 3-6 6-3 7-6, and defeating Dinara Safina 6-2, 6-2, in a match that featured very windy conditions. That win moved Jankovic to number 7 in the world rankings.

Jankovic's next tournament was the J&S Cup in Warsaw, where she was the number 4 seed. She lost to Justine Henin 5-7, 6-2, 4-6 in the semis. Although she lost, the result saw her ranking rise to a new high of 6. She then played at the Qatar Telecom German Open where she lost in the quarterfinals to Justine Henin in another 3 set match 6-3, 4-6, 4-6. Though she was leading 4-0 in the third set, Jankovic lost the next 6 games.

Jankovic's next competed at the Tier I tournament in Rome, Italy, the Internazionali BNL d'Italia. Jankovic came into the tournament as the No.3 Seed, and one of the heavy favorites to carry home the title. In the final, she successfully defeated, No. 2 seed, Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-1. The win put Jankovic as the No. 4 ranked player on WTA Tour, and extended her lead at the top of the Race to the Championships.

As No.4 seed and a heavy favourite in 2007 French Open, she reached another Grand Slam semi-finals, where among others she defeated Venus Williams and Nicole Vaidišová before falling to Justine Henin in two sets, 6-2 6-2. This was her strongest performance in Roland Garros to date. Her performance in the 2007 French Open brought her ranking up to number 3 on 11th June.

Jankovic continued her impressive run in this season by capturing the DFS Classic title in Birmingham, beating first seed Maria Sharapova 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. In the match Sharapova had led a set and a break, as well as 6-4, 3-6, 3-0 before Jelena fought back to win on a Sharapova forehand error. This is her first victory over Sharapova, having lost to her in the same tournament finals in 2005. Jelena then entered the Ordina Open in the Netherlands, where she reached the final the following week Jankovic became the first player since Chris Evert in 1974 to win 50 matches in a year in half a year. In the finals she ended up losing to Anna Chakvetadze in three sets due to a hamstring injury.

In the ladies singles at Wimbledon this year, Jankovic seeded third for the championships, reached the fourth round where she faced Marion Bartoli of France. She was beaten in 3 sets by eventual finalist Bartoli in a frustrating match for Jankovic, interrupted by rain four times. Jankovic started off well playing big shots freely and won the first set fairly comfortably 6-3. In the second set, Jankovic seemed to lose some of her fluidity that she demonstrated in the first set staying on and behind the baseline and using dropshots to try and win points quickly. The momentum began to shift towards Bartoli and the turning point came when a gradually improving Bartoli secured 2 games, after a rain delay, to clinch the second set levelling the match at 1 set all. After another rain delay in the third set, Jankovic struggled to provide a response to a stalwart Bartoli and was beaten 6-3 5-7 3-6. In the press conference after the match Jankovic stated that the rain delays benefited Bartoli, who appeared to be gulping for air at several points in the match (perhaps due to a lack of physical fitness) especially after long and gruelling rallies, giving her time to recuperate in the locker room.

She also played in the mixed doubles competition at Wimbledon with doubles specialist Jamie Murray. The pair, who were unseeded, reached the final after beating three seeded teams (two of them in one day on the second Saturday). They went on to win the title by beating the fifth seed, Jonas Björkman and Alicia Molik, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

On August 1, Jankovic qualified for the Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid, Spain. She is currently second in the race behind Justine Henin who has also qualified.

Jankovic struggled shortly after Wimbledon, exiting in the third round of the Acura Classic. There have been suggestions that she is suffering from fatigue. Jankovic has played an alarming number of tournaments in 2007: as of August 11, she is second in the race but has played 11 more tournaments than Justine Henin. She is the only woman on the tour to have played 20 tournaments, with the next highest being countrywoman Ana Ivanovic on 14. However, Jankovic maintained that the problem was simply a bout of 'flu and in spite of this reached the semi-final of the East West Bank Classic, falling to Ana Ivanovic. Despite a 6-1, 6-1 triumph over Peng Shuai she said that "I cannot expect myself to play my best tennis when I am still blowing my nose on each changeover with paper towels."

On August 19, she reached the finals of the Rogers Cup in Toronto, where she lost to Justine Henin in a closely fought contest 7-6(3), 7-5. Jankovic had led 4-1 in the first set as well as 4-2 in the second, but was unable to close out her opponent whom she had never beaten. The highlight of the match came at 5-5 in the second set with Henin serving 40-0 and then inexplicably losing three straight points for deuce. There, the two players fought over a marathon eight deuces (Jankovic had 6 chances to break) but the tough-as-ever Henin was able to close it out for 6-5. Jankovic was able to scratch her way from 0-40 triple championship point down in the next game, and saved 1 more during the deuces but finally lost when Henin hit a return, inside-out forehand winner on her sixth championship point. Henin previously had a match point as well when Jankovic was serving 4-5 (30-40) in the second set. The match took around 2 hrs. and 30 min. to complete.

Personal life

Jankovic was born in Belgrade, in then Yugoslavia, now Serbia, as the third child of Veselin and Snežana Jankovic, both economists. Her father is from Montenegro, and her mother is Serbian. She also has two brothers, Marko and Stefan. She is a student at the Megatrend University in Belgrade, studying economics; however, she has put her course of study on indefinite hiatus as she continues to pursue her tennis career.

Jankovic speaks Serbian (and/or Serbo-Croatian), French, and English.

Jankovic is known for her amicable temperament on court, and is often called the "Smiling Serb". At Wimbledon 2007, in a mixed doubles match at the semi-final stage she invited a ballboy to come and sit with her and began asking him questions, much to the crowds amusement. Though the boy was clearly enjoying himself, he swiftly jumped out of the chair when a riled Jamie Murray returned from his toilet break. The British press have linked Jankovic and Murray romantically but she has remained coy their relationship; despite using kisses as a way of motivating the lovestricken Scot.

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