Safina Halts Jankovic’s Number One Hopes
Jelena Jankovic is an interesting player. She’s a consistent, scrappy, defensive player who just gets it done on the court. Gets it done up to the quarters and semis of just about every tournament she is in anyway.
Jankovic is number two in the world and, had she won the East West Bank Classic, she would have become the newly minted number one player in women’s tennis. Obviously that didn’t happen as Dinara Safina ousted the Serbian in the semifinals of the Classic 7-6, 6-1 to move into the final against Flavia Pennetta. (She is not to be confused with any person having a connection to Flava Flav…at least not to my knowledge.)
Despite the loss, Jankovic is still on the verge of becoming the world’s top-ranked woman in the yellow fuzzy ball sport. And – get this – the Serb has never played in a Grand Slam final. Never. Notta. Zilch. Zero. Bagel. Donut.
Jankovic is the quintessential good-but-never-great player of the tour and, baby, it’s payin’ off.
I think, Jelena Jankovic is the most consistent player currently available in women’s tennis and has been in a steady progress in ranking for some time now. It is true that Jankovic has not played any grand slam final, but I think, the way she is developing herself, she is going to play her first grand slam final very soon.
Dinara Safina is also doing well and has been pretty much consistent. I think that Safina and Jankovic are the main challengers of Ana Ivanovic now.
Thanks for your article.