elena Jankovic was born on February 28, 1985, in
Belgrade, Serbia. She started training in tennis from the age of 9. Jelena has said that the reason she was admitted to tennis school was not because she wanted to be a pro, but because her parents wanted her to get involved in something apart from “running around the streets”.
Jelena Jankovic won her first Junior National Championship at the age of 11. Following this success, she was sent to
Florida where she entered Nick Bollettieri’s training academy. Overcoming the hurdle that she couldn’t speak in English, Jelena emerged victorious at the US Open and the Australian Open. This pushed her to the 1st r
ank among junior players in the world.
In 2002, Jelena decided to take a step further and become a pro. She couldn’t give a satisfactory performance and ended at 197th rank in the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association). But this was not enough to tame the high spirits of the rising athlete. Next year, in November 2003, Jelena grabbed her debut pro win at the ITF tournament in
Dubai. This win put her in the list of first 100 players in the WTA.
In May 2004, Jelena won her first WTA tournament in Budapest. She defeated players like Nadia Petrova, Paola Suarez and others to reach the 51st world rank.
In 2005, she defeated Serena Williams at Dubai Tennis Championships. Jelena Jankovic also gave excellent performance at the German Open and the DFS Classic. Though Jelena didn’t grab any major titles, her steady performance put her among the top 25 players at the end of the year.
In the beginning of 2006, Jelena lost nine matches in a row. However, she revived back her performance with Internazionali BNL d'Italia where Jelena made it to the quarterfinals before being defeated by Venus Williams. She also played nicely at the Wimbledon, French Open and JP Morgan Chase Open. She defeated three players in the top 10 and reached the semis at the US Open. There she lost to Justine Henin. This lovely series of performance won her the title of Most Improved Player of the Year from the WTA. She also reached the top 15.
2007 was a great year of Jelena Jankovic. She defeated Maria Sharapova at the DFS Classic in England. She also paired with Jamie Murray and the duo won the mixed doubles at Wimbledon. That happened to be Jelena’s debut Grand Slam title. Jelena also gave impressive performance at the ASB Classic (Australia), the Internazionali BNL d’Italia (Italy) and the Family Circle Cup (South Carolina). This lovely performance put her in the 3rd rank in the WTA. She also became the top female athlete of Serbia.
On August 11, 2008, Jelena Jankovic became World Ranking #1 but lost the spot soon to her native countrywoman Ana Ivanovic. Next ,she won the Porshe Tennix Grand Prix and the China Open and became top ranking once again on October 6, 2008. Jelena also won the Kremlin Cup in Moscow within that month.
Next month, Jelena Jankovic was named as the year-end No.1 singles player of the WTA Tour.
Her 2009 season began with the Sydney Medibank International Tennis Tournament in January.
Why is she famous?
Jelena Jankovic is famous as the #1 ranking singles player of 2008 on the WTA list.
Here is one of her famous quotes:
"Some of the angles that photographers get on court are not always flattering."
- Jelena Jankovic
Trivia :
- Height: 177 cm
- Weight: 59 kg
- She plays: right-handed.
- She turned pro in 2000.
- She hopes to become World's Number One.
Career Review :
- Singles Record: 244-139
- Singles Titles: 5
- Doubles Record: 31-49
- Doubles Titles: 1
- Prize Money: $2,679,390
- Career High ATP Ranking - Singles: 3 (11-Jun-2007).
Jelena Jankovic Image : tennisserver.com
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