Jelena Jankovic

To begin the 2007 season, Jelena Janković won her second title at the Tier IV ASB Classic tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, defeating Vera Zvonareva in the finals.

In her second tournament, the Tier II Medibank International event, Janković reached her second final in a row, defeating 7th ranked Martina Hingis, home favorite Australian Sam Stosur, No. 1 seed Amélie Mauresmo, and Nicole Vaidišová along the way for a 9-0 start to 2007. In the final, Janković was defeated by Kim Clijsters in an intense and controversial match.

In the final, Janković again lost her cool over a number of calls that went against her and ended up losing after serving for the match in the second set. If Janković had won the finals match against Clijsters, she would have entered the top 10. She made it to the fourth round of the Australian Open, where she was eliminated by the eventual champion Serena Williams 6-3, 6-2. Though she lost in the fourth round, she entered the top 10 at number 10 for the first time in her career.

At the first Tier I event of the year in Tokyo, Japan, Janković defeated Zheng Jie in straight sets in the second round, but ended up losing to countrywoman Ana Ivanović 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinal. In late February 2007, she entered the 2007 Dubai Tennis Championship and reached the semi-finals relatively unchallenged, before she retired from the match with an ankle injury against Amélie Mauresmo. The following week, she continued her streak in the Middle East at Doha, reaching the semifinals again, losing to Justine Henin in 3 sets; the result brought her ranking to a career-high #9. At Miami, Janković reached the third round before losing to Italian Mara Santangelo in three sets 6-2, 6-7, 4-6.

Janković kicked off her clay court season as the number two seed at a tournament in Amelia Island. She lost in the quarter-final to fellow Serb Ana Ivanović in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3. She then travelled to Charleston for the Family Circle Cup, winning her first Tier I title, defeating Venus Williams in a semifinal match that lasted more than 2 1/2 hours 3-6 6-3 7-6, and defeating Dinara Safina 6-2, 6-2, in a match that featured very windy conditions. That win moved Janković to number 7 in the world rankings.

Janković's next tournament was the J&S Cup in Warsaw, where she was the number 4 seed. She lost to Justine Henin 5-7, 6-2, 4-6 in the semis. Although she lost, the result saw her ranking rise to a new high of 6. She then played at the Qatar Telecom German Open where she lost in the quarterfinals to Justine Henin in another 3 set match 6-3, 4-6, 4-6. Though she was leading 4-0 in the third set, Janković lost the next 6 games.

Janković's next competed at the Tier I tournament in Rome, Italy, the Internazionali BNL d'Italia. Janković came into the tournament as the No.3 Seed, and one of the heavy favorites to carry home the title. In the final, she successfully defeated, No. 2 seed, Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-1. The win put Janković as the No. 4 ranked player on WTA Tour, and extended her lead at the top of the Race to the Championships.

As No.4 seed and a heavy favourite in 2007 French Open, she reached another Grand Slam semi-finals, where among others she defeated Venus Williams and Nicole Vaidišová before falling to Justine Henin in two sets, 6-2 6-2. This was her strongest performance in Roland Garros to date. Her performance in the 2007 French Open brought her ranking up to number 3 on 11th June.

Janković continued her impressive run in this season by capturing the DFS Classic title in Birmingham, beating first seed Maria Sharapova 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. In the match Sharapova had led a set and a break, as well as 6-4, 3-6, 3-0 before Jelena fought back to win on a Sharapova forehand error. This is her first victory over Sharapova, having lost to her in the same tournament finals in 2005. Jelena then entered the Ordina Open in the Netherlands, where she reached the final the following week Janković became the first player since Chris Evert in 1974 to win 50 matches in a year in half a year. In the finals she ended up losing to Anna Chakvetadze in three sets due to a hamstring injury.

In the ladies singles at Wimbledon this year, Janković seeded third for the championships, reached the fourth round where she faced Marion Bartoli of France. She was beaten in 3 sets by eventual finalist Bartoli in a frustrating match for Janković, interrupted by rain four times. Janković started off well playing big shots freely and won the first set fairly comfortably 6-3. In the second set, Janković seemed to lose some of her fluidity that she demonstrated in the first set staying on and behind the baseline and using dropshots to try and win points quickly. The momentum began to shift towards Bartoli and the turning point came when a gradually improving Bartoli secured 2 games, after a rain delay, to clinch the second set levelling the match at 1 set all. After another rain delay in the third set, Janković struggled to provide a response to a stalwart Bartoli and was beaten 6-3 5-7 3-6. In the press conference after the match Janković stated that the rain delays benefited Bartoli, who appeared to be gulping for air at several points in the match (perhaps due to a lack of physical fitness) especially after long and gruelling rallies, giving her time to recuperate in the locker room.

She also played in the mixed doubles competition at Wimbledon with doubles specialist Jamie Murray. The pair, who were unseeded, reached the final after beating three seeded teams (two of them in one day on the second Saturday). They went on to win the title by beating the fifth seed, Jonas Björkman and Alicia Molik, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

On August 1, Janković qualified for the Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid, Spain. She is currently second in the race behind Justine Henin who has also qualified.

Janković struggled shortly after Wimbledon, exiting in the third round of the Acura Classic. There have been suggestions that she is suffering from fatigue.[3] Janković has played an alarming number of tournaments in 2007: as of August 11, she is second in the race but has played 11 more tournaments than Justine Henin. She is the only woman on the tour to have played 20 tournaments, with the next highest being countrywoman Ana Ivanović on 14. However, Janković maintained that the problem was simply a bout of 'flu and in spite of this reached the semi-final of the East West Bank Classic, falling to Ana Ivanović. Despite a 6-1, 6-1 triumph over Peng Shuai she said that "I cannot expect myself to play my best tennis when I am still blowing my nose on each changeover with paper towels."

Sources:
Wikipedia.org
OC Register