Jelena Jankovic has had some amazing results this season – she would be ranked No. 1 as of last week if you went by 2007 rankings points earned only.
Exactly one year ago, before the Italian Open, she was thinking about retiring from tennis since she hadn’t reached the second round of nine successive tournaments! A year later, she won the Tier I event and moved up to number four in the world. The event in Rome was her third title this year; she had previously won Auckland and Charleston.
Jelena definitely plays some good tennis, but it seems that she hasn’t learnt from the experience in Australia earlier this year. During the Australian circuit, she was playing very well, and reached the final of back-to-back events in Auckland and Sydney. She had played 10 matches in two weeks time, right before the first Grand Slam of the year. Jankovic would have been a real contender, had she been a hundred percent fit during the Australian Open. Since she had played too much, she was an easy prey for Serena Williams in the fourth round.
J.J. is definitely in form lately, but didn’t she make the same mistake again?
We had Warsaw, Berlin, Rome, and Strasbourg one after the other. In Warsaw, Jankovic reached the semis, in Berlin the quarter-finals, while in Rome she was the winner. The reasonable thing to do was to pull out of Strasbourg, to rest and prepare for the upcoming Roland Garros. However, Jankovic competed in the Tier III event. She reached the semis, and then withdrew because of illness.
Has this restlessness affected Jelena’s physical fitness? Will the fourth seed be able to play her best at Roland Garros? (via: TennisX)
