Dubai: Country colours may only matter for the Davis Cup or other team events, but it's different with Jelena Jankovic. The Serbian star, a former world No 1 in 2008, wants to see herself and her compatriots at the top of the rankings again.
"I want to see the Serbian power back on top again. It was not a mean achievement for a small country with no tradition in tennis to have players occupying the top three positions in the world," said Jankovic, now a resident of Dubai.
No prizes for guessing, she was referring to herself, Ana Ivanovic (another former world No 1) and men's star Novak Djokovic.
After having an indifferent season last year, Jankovic now wants to take one step at a time in her pursuit of regaining the No 1 spot. If winning the Dubai Tennis Championship is one of them, the Serb is satisfied with the bigger picture.
"I have shed a lot of weight and am feeling a lot lighter on court. I am also working on my game and hopefully things should fall into place soon," the down-to-earth star said during an interaction with the media.
One of the few things that Jankovic did — quite a familiar practice among sportspersons — is go back to the basics with tennis guru Nick Bollettieri.
"I have discontinued my old coach and gone back to Nick, who knows my game since I was a child and he has rectified a few things."
Grand ambition
Much like Dinara Safina in recent times, one of the question marks that lingered about Jankovic's capabilities as a player was that she had made it to the top without winning a Grand Slam.
"I have no reasons to feel bad about it. I had defeated all the players who won the Slams in one tournament or the other and lost to Serena [Williams] in one of the Slam finals. However, someday I hope to win a Slam — not to prove anything to anybody but for myself," she said.
