Jelena Jankovic

Jelena Jankovic is regarded as one of the fittest ladies in World tennis and has steadily risen up the LTA rankings since 2003, when she first entered the top 100 in the World. She is currently ranked third, behind Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanic. She has cut her schedule down considerably since 2007 enabling her to concentrate on Grand Slam or top tier Tournaments. She has yet to win a Tennis Grand Slam but it’s abundantly clear that she has the ability to do so. She has a career total of 9 wins on the LTA Tour and has a further ten runners-up performances. Her best Grand Slam performance’s to date have been her four semi-final’s. She reached the semi Final at the US Open in 2006 losing in three sets to Annaliese Mauresmo, after she herself had served for the match at 6-5 in the final set. She then reached the semi-final of the French Open in 2007 losing to Justine Henin and then in 2008 she reached the same stage at the Australian Open Ladies Singles, after beating Serena Williams, but she then lost to Sharapova. She made the French Open Semi Final once more in 2008 but this time losing out to compatriot Ana Ivanovic, .

Jelena is principally a defensive player, known as a counter-puncher in tennis. She is one of the few players who can slide on all surfaces further enhancing her defensive abilities. In 2007 she played more matches than any other ranked player and still maintained her world ranking of third, which again is further testament to her fitness and stamina. She has great ground stroke consistency and has an explosive two handed backhand down the line passing shot.

Her weakness is her serve, she likes to spin it in on both her first and second serves which makes her very attackable, particularly from base line players. She gets broken far more than she needs to and this weakness could prevent her from ever winning consistently.