Jelena Wins, Gets to Buy a New Car!

Written by Pat Davis

Monday, 22 March 2010 12:09

"What's with the Serbs and their love of cars?" asks my partner Dave of one of his co-workers, Bole, who is a Serb and who drives a Porsche by the way. He explains it's a "bauble" thing, they tend to show off a bit when money finds its way to their neighborhood. They love their cars apparently.

So does Jelena Jankovic, who is building some palatial sounding manse just up the road from me here in San Diego. We are told it will have a 10-car garage, so I guess we can expect it will be filled with all sorts of cars.

After her win on Sunday over Caroline Wozniacki at Indian Wells, Jelena can probably afford to drop a few bucks on a new car. It probably will be a new Porsche, because she has a yen for them too. To my surprise the women earned a bigger purse this year at IW than the men - $700k vs. $605K for the winners.

Jelena earned her money this week, not so much for the final, which was decent enough as female finals go. But for the one match earlier in the week against Italy's Sara Errani where Jelena was nearly down and out, then somehow managed to steel herself and steady her game and snatch victory in a third-set tiebreaker.

How often have we seen a player catch fire after surviving a really scary moment early on in a tournament? Watching that match nearly wiped me out, so I can imagine how Jelena felt to get through it. We may look back at the end of the year and remember that this was a match that turned the tide in Jelena's year. She has played well only in fits and starts; other women have shot past her in the rankings, including the woman she played on Sunday, Caroline Wozniacki. Jankovic seemed to have fallen into a period of malaise, and the illness of her mother, with whom she is especially close, also tugged at her tennis fortunes.

Wozniacki looked to be the favorite going into Sunday's final. She is higher ranked now, at Number Two in the world. Somehow I have not become a fan yet of Caro's. Maybe it's all that big buxom blonde bounciness that I am resisting, the fact that everytime I see her walk on court I feel myself transported back to Fellini's La Dolce Vita, and the scene where the voluptuous Anita Ekberg steps out of the Trevi Fountain, dripping wet. Or the fact that so many people want to take up this new glamor girl. After all, Ivanovic went away and vanished into the ether, so it would be unseemly to continue making much of her beauty when her game has simply gone away. And Jankovic has just too quirky a look to be considered a real tennis babe the way Wozniacki is.

For my money though Jelena Jankovic is the most interesting player on the women's side, and I have been a fan since I first saw her play, around the time of the Rome event a few years ago. What a hoot this woman is, I thought, and she has continued on with her own unique blend of great retrieving tennis, anticipation and movement that may be the best in all of women's tennis, and the personality quirks we have come to love about her, her post-match pressers which are filled with humor and off-the-wall remarks, her endless love of shopping sprees.

In an era where the women are about as uptight and competitive as the men, Jankovic is still a refreshing sight to see. We all poo-pooed her Number One ranking of a few years ago, knowing it was something of an anomaly and that she would soon tail off, but I am glad to see her back now and playing well again.

Could this year represent the second coming of Jelena Jankovic? We hope so, for there is a spirit of generosity about the woman that is relaxed and inviting, and I for one would like to sit down and chat further with her.

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