The story began on Nov 2nd, 1994 when JJ appeared for the first time in practice at the Tennis Club of Red Star Belgrade. Dreams and interests of a nine and a half years old Jelena Jankovic changed from playing a piano and foreign language studies at the French Diplomatic School to holding a racquet every day. From the childish curiosity to play tennis, today we have a world-class tennis player who in only few years crossed the long path from “baby steps” in tennis becoming a professional winning many trophies and titles. After six months of playing tennis, it was enough for this young talented girl to start her winning career and enter several local tournaments. The first tournament already showed what a fact is today; Jelena was born to be one of the best. Her first tournament was in 1995 playing the National Yugoslavian Championship for kids up to 10 years old in which she managed to come to the semi-finals. When she was 11, she became a national championship for girls up to 12 years old, but also winning on the prestigious Limon Bowl Tournament in Italy.
In order to become a star and continue her career as a champion, Jelena decided to leave Serbia and go to the United States in which she received better conditions for practice and development of her game. After several months of residing in Florida, Jelena received an invitation from famous Nick Bolitieri to convert a young girl into a “new tennis wonder kid”, as she joined his Academy.
In that way, extremely talented girl from Belgrade began her trip towards the professional career. Days of hard work and many repetitions in practice trying to perfect the shots brought Jelena into a new chapter of the fairy tale which continues as we read, actually it’s in the best stage of the golden era.
At age 16, Jelena managed to become a grand slam winner. She won at the Australian Open in Melbourne in 2001, becoming the #1 junior in the world. She also played in the finals of the US Open and Orange Bowl. The following year, she became a professional, and managed to become 197th on the WTA Rankings, with only 8 tournaments played. In 2002, she played in the finals at the Virginia tournament, in the quarter finals at the tournament in Stanford, where she was defeated by the Belgian player Kim Clijsters. Tennis experts started commenting on Jelena’s technique, saying that she belongs to the top of the WTA Rankings, noticing that she doesn’t have a weak spot, and that she is showing one of the greatest two-handed backhands.
“Jelena is a girl that will dominate the world’s scene of tennis. “- Bolitieri said in 2001.
In November 2003, Jelena won at the ITF tournament in Dubai, making it her first title, and entered in the top 100 on the WTA Rankings. Once she fulfilled that dream, she went slowly, step by step towards her next goal- to be at the very top of the world’s tennis. She won her first WTA title at a tournament in Budapest, in May 2004. The successes that followed were in 2005 in Dubai, Seoul and Birmingham. Jelena enjoyed Dubai, her performance was spectacular, and she kept crushing anybody who stood in her way. She defeated Serena Williams in the semi-finals, not even letting her win a single game in the first set. However, in the finals, she was only a step away from the triumph, but she lacked experience and luck and was defeated by Lindsay Davenport. After the Dubai final, Jelena became the 20th on the WTA rankings. Jelena ended the 2005 season as the 22nd player in the world.
The next year had an amazing story despite the high disappointments. The first few months of the season were the period of despair. She experienced ten consecutive losses, out of which nine in the first rounds of WTA tournaments. The desolation was so gigantic that Jelena thought of quitting tennis, but the wheel of fortune changed the direction rapidly bringing her back into Top 20 of the woman’s circuit. JJ commenced her series of great results starting with the third round victory at Wimbledon against Venus Williams, followed by the final of Los Angeles in which she previously beat the Serena Williams, becoming the only player to triumph versus both sisters in the same year. It seemed that no one could stop Jelena from that moment, but unfortunately she experienced a back injury which forced her to retire from the tournament in Montreal, and withdraw from the tournament in New Haven. Jelena then headed to Flashing Meadows not knowing what to expect at the US Open. First time after Monika Seles, Serbia had a Grand Slam semi-finalist, Jelena Jankovic. Showing her variety of shots, many opponents left the court defeated including Top 10 seeds such as Nicole Vaidisova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Elena Dementieva. In the semi-final contest, JJ faced Belgian Justine Henin ending her winning run of the tournament in a very close match.
Jelena Jankovic
Jelena Jankovic
Jelena Jankovic
Jelena Jankovic
Jelena Jankovic
Jelena Jankovic
Jelena Jankovic
Jelena Jankovic
Jelena Jankovic
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