Q. Some players seem to like a little drama in their matches. Are you one of those?

JELENA JANKOVIC: Not really. I wish I didn't have any drama in my matches. I wish I would win nice and in a simple way, you know, nothing there, just cruise through the match and that's it.

But sometimes, you know, it's more exciting for the fans and a little more stressful for the people in my box. But as long as you win, that's what matters.

Q. But in a way you like it a little bit?

JELENA JANKOVIC: I don't know. Who likes drama? Do you know anybody that likes to get involved into tight matches where you're maybe going to go into a third set or whatever?

I don't think anybody likes to be in this kind of situations. Everybody likes to win 2 and 2, easy, no pressure.

Q. Subconsciously some people might like that.

JELENA JANKOVIC: That's just part of the sport, you know, dealing with pressure and being in tight situations is what this sport is all about. You have to try to do your best when this happens, and then you form this drama or whatever you call it.

Oh, please, Jelena, you love the drama.

Finnes det noen kjedeligere topp 10-spiller enn Jelena Jankovic? Jeg så kampen mot Arvidsson (nummer 63 i verden), og håpet inderlig at svenska skulle vinne. Jankovic har et lidende kropsspråk, og spilte en daukjedelig tennis: Hun holdt ballen i spill og satset på at Arvidsson skulle knekke sammen på den store arenaen.

Det gjorde hun heldigvis ikke. Arvidsson er temmelig treg, og har lite nettspill å vise til. Derimot har hun noen fine grunnslag fra begge sider. Jeg falt spesielt for backhanden hennes, som hun nesten uten unntak slo diagonalt, flatt, og la seg skikkelig inn i slaget. Arvdisson hadde også noen fine, korte, krossede forehander ut av banen.

Jankovic fikk en stor ledelse både i andre setts tie-break og i tredje sett, men klarte ikke å avgjøre det før Arvidsson servet på 5-6. Før den tid hadde Jankovic himlet med øynene, lagt seg teatralsk ned på banen etter en lang ballveksling og sett temmelig utilfreds ut.

Til nå har jeg sett serberne (serberinnene?) Ivanovic og Jankovic i årets US Open, og ingen av dem overbeviste. Etter kampen sa Jankovic blant annet dette (legg merke til den grenseløse selvmedlidenheten):

“For me to play three hours, it's amazing at this moment, because I haven't been training as hard as I want to,” Jankovic admitted. “I'm now training to get that, but, you know, it takes time. It's not going to happen overnight. So I need, still, you know, a lot of days to get better and better. I feel that I'm improving, but, you know, it's going to take some time.”

Wow, This tournament is crap, obviously, no top seed is allowed to take gold. All favorites have fallen in the quarters. I don't know how this match went on, but it'll probably have been the aggressive Safina against the passive and defensive Jankovic.

So It's obvious to say that;

Safina Dinara d. Jelena Jankovic 62 57 63 in 2h24. Stars are here.

From SonyEricssonWTAtour.com:
BEIJING, China - A lot of them were pushed but the favorites kept on winning in Beijing on Wednesday, as the third round took place at the Olympics. Among the winners were Jelena Jankovic, the Williams sisters and China's Li Na.

Jankovic, the No.2 seed, almost had a repeat performance against No.16 seed Dominika Cibulkova. Two weeks ago in Montréal, she was up 5-1 in the first set before Cibulkova came roaring back to pull off the biggest win of her career, 75 62; but on Wednesday in Beijing the Serb responded much differently this time, squandering a one-break first set lead but regrouping at 5-all and cruising to a 75 61 win.

"She doesn't give you any free points; everything you do, you really have to earn it," Jankovic said of Cibulkova. "I started well. I was hitting the ball quite solid. But she liked that style of play. I kind of changed my game a little bit, adding some variety, and it helped. I'm glad to win in two sets. It's a good win for me."

Next up for Jankovic will be No.6 seed Dinara Safina, who silenced the home crowd with a 64 63 win over Zheng Jie. Safina has now won 13 matches in a row, a stretch that includes title runs at Los Angeles and Montréal. She has also won 30 of her last 33 matches (a 90% winning percentage). She also won her last match against Jankovic in straight sets, in the semifinals of Los Angeles.

"Safina has been in great form the last few months," Jankovic added. "She's playing some great tennis. I lost to her a couple of weeks ago, so I have to play my best tennis if I want to win. She's quite strong at the moment."

The Williams sisters both won through to the quarterfinals as well, but in much different fashion. No.7 seed Venus Williams was the first to advance earlier in the day, defeating No.12 seed Victoria Azarenka in an hour and 10 minutes, 63 62. The biggest complication of the match for Williams came when Azarenka burst out to a 3-1 first set lead, but the momentum was short-lived.

"I love it here," Williams said. "I love playing with all of the athletes. I love the atmosphere. The most important part is it's only every four years, so now is the time to really play well. I think I'm coming closer. Quarterfinals now. So it's coming closer every round. It's my dream."

Next up for Venus will be Chinese trailblazer Li, who lost the opening set to Kaia Kanepi before cruising to a 46 62 60 victory.

"We all know Venus is a very good player," said Li, who has had nine Top 10 wins in her career, including one this week over Svetlana Kuznetsova. "It's really hard to predict what will happen tomorrow. But I will try my best."

"I'm really fit, the conditions are good for me, I'm working hard and trying to play smart," Williams said. "I'm very excited about playing Li. I'll try to play my best."

No.4 seed Serena Williams had a slow start against No.15 seed Alizé Cornet, dropping the first set, 6-3, but broke early in the second and third sets and never looked back for a 36 63 64 victory. It was similar to their only prior encounter in the semifinals of Charleston this year, where Cornet went up 4-1 in the first set before Williams battled back to win in straight sets, 75 63.

"I was making so many errors and I wasn't practicing like that at all; it came to a point where I hit a backhand into the net and just had enough," Williams said. "Before I knew it, I just got even angrier. But then I started playing more smart out there. I just tried keeping more balls in play and cutting down on my errors. The fact that I'm really fit was able to help out, as well. She has had some stellar results this year, so I knew I had to start playing better."

Next up for Serena is No.5 seed Elena Dementieva, who beat Caroline Wozniacki, 76(3) 62. Williams and Dementieva have had an interesting head-to-head, with the American winning the first nine sets they ever played - winning four straight matches and taking the first set of their most recent meeting, in the final of Moscow last fall. But Dementieva came back from that first set loss in front of her home crowd to win that last meeting, 57 61 61.

"She played unbelievable in that match," Williams added. "I would hit a net cord, it would barely go over the net, she would run it down. Hopefully I won't have to play that Dementieva. But if so, I'll be ready."

The other quarterfinal will pit No.9 seed Vera Zvonareva against Sybille Bammer. Both won tight two-setters on Wednesday, with Zvonareva beating Francesca Schiavone, 76(4) 64, and Bammer beating Lucie Safarova, 75 64. Zvonareva has beaten the Austrian in both of their prior meetings, in three sets each time.

[ This is one of the worst moments of my career, Ivanovic said at the Olympic Tennis Centre ]

It's still also uncertain whether Jelena Jankovic will play or not, since she has a serious injury that she doesn't want to aggrevate at any cost.

[ Hopefully I will somehow be healthy and ready to play my best tennis, Jankovic said Saturday. I don’t know. I will see Sunday how everything will go. If I will not be able to do my best on the court, I will not go. I will not risk that ]

Sources here and here.

"That being said, there’s no denying that Jankovic is about to become the most unconventional - and dare I say unimpressive - No. 1 in the history of the WTA, which began the rankings system in 1975.

-RIGHT ON-

| here |

It's always something with Jelena. She never does anything quietly, does she?

Dametouren sliter. Etter at Henin la opp i vår, har ingen stått fram som en klar arvtaker. Ivanovic vant French Open, men har gjort lite etter det. Venus Williams vant Wimbledon, men kan ikke lenger slåss om førsteplassen på rankingen. Sharapova er mye skadet og Dementieva/Safina/Kuznetsova klarer ikke å ta det siste skrittet til toppen. Illustrerende nok er det ingen damespillere som har vunnet mer enn tre titler i år. Det er oppsiktsvekkende lite.

Denne uken var det faktisk så ille at Jelena Jankovic kunne blitt verdensener dersom hun hadde nådd finalen i Montreal. Ingenting galt om Jankovic (hun er vittig og sjarmerende og forbløffende ærlig), men hun har aldri spilt en Grand Slam-finale. Sjansen til å bli verdensener glapp i Montreal da hun tapte for Dominika Cibulkova. Nei, jeg har heller aldri hørt om henne før.

Jeg lurer på hva Henin tenker nå. Selv i utbrent tilstand ville hun hatt en meget god sjanse til å vinne US Open og OL.

She needed a little help from Svetlana Kuznetsova, but Jelena Jankovic will become the WTA's 18th world number 1 come August 11. Kuznetsova needed to win the title to become number one herself, thus preventing JJ from taking the top spot. This really says something about the state of the WTA right now. Jelena will be the least accomplished player ever to reach the top, without having reached a grand slam final. It's a sign of a weak era and the lack of a true dominant champion. Somebody better set the record straight at the Olympics and the Open because I'm tired of this nonsense.

I mean seriously. Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Maria Sharapova have all had plenty of chances to step it up.

Ana has the number one spot right now, but it really doesn't look like she's too interested in keeping it. The only reason she has it at the moment is because JJ couldn't get it done in L.A. Her effort to get to the top at the French was good but has done nothing since then. The last time I checked, chasing Rafa around Mallorca doesn't get you ranking points.

Jelena has had three chances to take the number one ranking and failed to get it done three times. The first time she had Ana down in the French Open semis and didn't get it done. Second, she lost to Tanasugarn in the 4th round of Wimbledon. And lastly, she lost to Safina in L.A., where she would have got the ranking with a title. (All credit to Safina though, who played incredibly.) Who knows if she will ever get another shot?

Maria had the top spot gift wrapped to her by Justine Henin when she retired last May. At the time it felt right because Maria was having an unbelievable year and was clearly the best player of '08. She kept number one for a grand total of two weeks. Now it seems like Maria is more concerned about her (rumored) girlfriend/shoulder injury/new racquets/European adventures/Nike's latest fashion escapade/Tiffany earrings/executive producing a T.V. show/acquiring a new Ed Moses for her collection/her bangs than her tennis right now.

P.S.- No hate on any of these ladies, I just think they need to step it up big time. I mean, look at Rafa working so hard to get to number one and these girls almost seem like they're taking it for granted.

- dodatni komentar verjetno ni potreben, se pa zna zgodit da se pojavi ;-)
- nekje vmes je odpovedal mikrofon zato malo "poka", ampak mislim da ne moti :-)

"When I saw that I'm on the schedule at 12:00 in the morning, and especially on Court 18, which was very unusual, you know, for a No. 2 seed to play on Court 18 is, for my opinion, not really normal.

But what can you do?"

Q. Venus raised that point before, being a champion being on Court 2. What do you think about that?

JELENA JANKOVIC: "Yes, I think, you know, the scheduling is really it was not made in a good way. It was not right. I think, you know, the champion, the defending champion, should always play on the top courts, because she won and she deserves to play there.

I was almost playing in the parking lot. I almost need a helicopter to go to my court."

After avoiding an upset to Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic finally succumbed to the upset bug, falling to Tamarine Tanasugarn, 3-6, 2-6. This is the first time in the Open Era that none of the 1, 2 or 3 seeds are not in the quarterfinals. All Williams final, anyone?

Andy Roddick

Jelena Jankovic

For more pics, including Ana Ivanovic, Tommy Haas, Bob & Mike Bryan and James Blake, click here