Serbian cutie pie, Jelena Jankovic, is finally smiling as she holds her first trophy of the year after defeating Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-3 3-6 6-3 at the Andalucia Tennis Championships in Marbella, Spain, on April 12 2009. No wonder she is smiling. This is the first time she even made it to a Final match this year. It took two 3-set matches and a big scare in the Quarterfinals, but the world No. 4 ranked Jankovic finally got the job done.
Jankovic breezed through her first two matches winning 6-2, 6-1 over No. 44 ranked Francesca Schiavone of Italy, and 6-3, 6-0 over No. 174 ranked Selima Sfar of Tunisia.
Then the going got a little rough in the Quarterfinals. Jankovic lost the first set 3-6 to No. 61 ranked Roberta Vinci of Italy, then came back to win the second set 6-3. The third set went to a tie-break with Jankovic squeaking by 8-6. That was a close one.
The Semifinal match wasn’t quite as exciting, with Jankovic winning 7-5, 6-2 over No. 18 ranked Anabel Medina Garrigues, setting up a Final match against No. 27 ranked Carla Suarez-Navarro. It took another three sets, but Jankovic prevailed 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Jankovic is now 14-5 for the season, which isn’t bad. But for the No. 4 ranked player, it was time to get to the Finals and win one. She had lost her first match in her last two tournaments, and won only one match in the tournament before that. Her record was not looking good – only one win in three tournaments. This championship helps erase some of the bitter memories of those last three tournaments, and hopefully will inspire Jankovic to play better tennis the rest of the year.
