Dubai: Former world number one Jelena Jankovic is hoping her close affinity with Dubai will help resurrect her form in a bid to reach the top bracket again.
Except for skipping the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open last year, Jankovic has been a regular visitor here since 2005. The Serbian has fared quite well here with one final [lost against Lindsay Davenport in 2005] and a couple of semi-finals [against Caroline Wozniacki in 2011 and Agnieszka Radwanska in 2012]. She made a strong start on Tuesday, disposing off Ukrainian qualifier Maryna Zanevska 6-4, 6-3 in the first round.
Last year, Jankovic decided to break the trend and travelled all the way to Bogota where she went on to claim her 13th WTA career title. “That was the first year I missed playing in Dubai, which is kind of strange, and I went to Bogota and won my first title in a couple of years,” she recalled.
“Even though I missed playing here, I won my title there. That was kind of a great compensation. But I enjoy coming back here. I have the residence here and I love the weather. I really enjoy my time playing this tournament. I have a lot of fans and a lot of Serbs who come out and support me as well,” she added.
Jankovic spends a few weeks during the course of the year in Dubai. Since winning the Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge at the beginning of her career, Jankovic has regularly used Dubai as a training base. “I trained here for a couple of weeks before Melbourne, and similar was the case the previous year when I did my off-season here,” she disclosed.
“Whenever I can and whenever there is some free time, I like to come and train and enjoy the weather, enjoy the Arabic food, and the people here are quite welcoming and I feel right,” she added.
With three more days still to go before the singles final on Saturday, Jankovic was already plotting on lifting the trophy that has eluded her in the past few years. “It would mean a lot to me as this is quite a big tournament and a great tournament with so many great players. And it’s going to be a lot of tough work in front of me if I want to lift the trophy on Saturday. I have been a finalist and a semi-finalist here, so I have never won this tournament before, so that would be a great achievement.”
Jankovic’s next opponent will be Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova in their second round match on Wednesday, and a win could see her face top seed and world number one Serena Williams in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
“That’s going to be a tough match [against Safarova]. She’s a left handed player, and it’s never easy playing those kind of players. So I expect really a tough match. Hopefully I can play a lot better than I did today and we will see how it goes,” Jankovic said.
