We’ll find out in the weeks and months to come whether the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells has been the turning point of Jelena Jankovic’s 2010, but the title couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for the Serb.
Pundits can be forgiven if they didn’t include the former world No. 1 in their equations for the Indian Wells crown. At the beginning of play, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, Elena Dementieva, Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki were among those who would have seemed better bets for the title than the sixth seed.
By the end though, it was Jankovic who outlasted them all to be crowned champion, winning the final against Wozniacki with a routine 6-2, 6-4 scoreline. It was a final that saw Jankovic back to her old aggressive self, and signal her intention to stick around in the top 10 for a while longer yet.
It would have been premature to write the 25-year-old off completely before the tournament, but what had to be acknowledged was that in 2009 Jankovic was a long way from the form that took her to the year-end No. 1 ranking the previous season. Her start to 2010 hadn’t signalled much improvement either, as the now 12-times WTA Tour titlist failed to reach the quarter-finals in any of her four previous tournaments.
A three-set win over 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the Fed Cup during February was the best performance Jankovic had managed in the opening stages of the year, but in the knockout tournaments she’d showed no reason for anyone to get excited about her prospects for the year.
The turning point of Jankovic’s BNP Paribas Open this year came in the third round, when the former world No. 1 clawed back from 0-40 to go down 2-5 in the final set to ultimately take the match from the unseeded Sara Errani.
It was the fight she demonstrated in securing that victory that was most notable. Jankovic then built on that to win in straight sets over Dubai semi-finalist Shahar Peer in the fourth round, Kuala Lumpur titlist Alisa Kleybanova in the quarters and newly minted top-10 player Samantha Stosur in a semi-final in which Jankovic’s experience at getting the job done at the pointy end of tournaments shone through. In truth, Jankovic was never really challenged after the third round.
If the world No. 8 – Jankovic has moved up one place in the rankings after Indian Wells – can carry this form and mentality through the remainder of the year, she again looms as one of the more dangerous players on the WTA Tour.
On the men’s side of the draw, the champion came from even further left-field. Ivan Ljubicic celebrated his 31st birthday during the tournament, and as a present to himself, the Croat secured his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title with a 7-6(3), 7-6(5) victory over Andy Roddick in the final.
That victory came after the 20th seed dispatched world No. 2 Novak Djokovic in the fourth round, and won a three set semi-final against defending champion Rafael Nadal, who took home the men’s doubles title (in partnership with fellow Spaniard Marc Lopez) as a consolation prize.
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