2009 SUMMARY
Titles Won: Marbella, Cincinnati
Best Grand Slam Result: 4R: Australian Open, Roland Garros
Win/Loss Record: 42-16
Record Against Top 10: 3-1
SEC History: Making third appearance; SF in 2008
Jankovic's Sony Ericsson WTA Tour bio
She may have been last to qualify for this year's Sony Ericsson Championships, but it says a lot about Jelena Jankovic that she did. At the beginning of last week's Kremlin Cup three players still had a shot at making the cut, and all of them were in Moscow. One by one they fell: first, Agnieszka Radwanska, then Vera Zvonareva, leaving the 24-year-old Serb to throw herself over the coveted finish line.
After her superb 2008 season, which she finished as No.1, Jankovic has certainly done things the hard way this year. As the top seed she was dispatched by Marion Bartoli in the round of 16 at the Australian Open, and after battling her way to the semis at the Paris Indoors she was beaten by Amélie Mauresmo. Then things got worse: a round of 16 loss to Kaia Kanepi at Dubai - which she described as the worst match of her life - and opening losses at both Indian Wells and Miami, to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Gisela Dulko.
Things picked up for Jankovic at Marbella, where she won a morale-boosting first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title of the year. A relatively small title, sure, but beating Anabel Medina Garrigues and Carla Suárez Navarro on clay is no mean feat. For a two-time champion in Rome the rest of the clay season was unsatisfactory, but not disastrous, with quarterfinal runs at Stuttgart, Rome and Madrid and a fourth round stumble at Roland Garros, where defeat was at the hands of Sorana Cirstea, 9-7 in the third set.
Photo Gallery: Jankovic's 2009 season
By the grasscourt season Jankovic had still only met one Top 10 opponent all year and yet her ranking had dropped to No.6 - with no immediate sign of an upswing. Anna Chakvetadze - having an even worse year - beat her in the first round at Eastbourne and 17-year-old Melanie Oudin did the job in the third round at Wimbledon.
But all was not lost, for the second half of Jankovic's season has been highlighted by two vintage weeks. Although Bartoli got the better of her in the quarters at Stanford, the old JJ was back with a vengeance the following week at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati, where she beat three of the Top 10 - Victoria Azarenka, Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina. The win over Safina was, in fact, her first ever over a reigning No.1.
Good wins over Patty Schnyder and Kim Clijsters followed in Toronto, but up-and-coming Russian Alisa Kleybanova had her measure in the quarterfinals - just as she did again last Friday at the Kremlin Cup. Having reached her first Grand Slam final at Flushing Meadows last year, Jankovic's second round loss to Yaroslava Shvedova this year was a bitter blow - particularly as she held two match points in the third set tie-break.
Jankovic bounced back to reach the final in Tokyo - although a wrist injury forced her to retire against Maria Sharapova, and may have contributed to her subsequent loss to Peng Shuai in Beijing. In any case, she'll be an intriguing presence in Doha.
Features: Jelena Meets the UK's Young Talent Highlights: Cincinnati: Jankovic vs. Safina
