What do the rankings mean, exactly? It is a little absurd to have a number next to your name that can change from one week to the next, as this ESPN ad with Roger Federer once pointed out. “You know what I like about tennis are the rankings,” SportsCenter anchor Neil Everett says to Federer. “I like to know exactly where you stand at all times.” Federer—who, by the way, is the best actor among the current crop of pros—replies, “Yeah, it works for us,” before going on to say that Everett probably wouldn't make his Top 10 if he had to rank the network’s anchors.
While they can’t measure a hierarchy of excellence or ability in any precise way—was Serena Williams really the best tennis player in the world last week and the second-best this week?—the rankings don’t lie when it comes to achievement over the long term. That’s why Jelena Jankovic, who at 23 has reached just one Grand Slam final (which she lost), is at the top of the charts again as of today.
When Jankovic first ascended to No. 1 this summer, I wrote that it was indicative of a tour with a power vacuum, and that the women’s game made no sense in the wake of Justine Henin’s retirement. That was partly a reaction to the fact that Jankovic had made her jump at the same time that she was losing in a quarterfinal. It reminded me of the dark days on the men’s side a decade ago, when Yevgeny Kafelnikov lost six matches in a row even as he was taking over the top spot.
The women’s tour is still trying to fill the vacuum. Ana Ivanovic may not have been ready to take on that responsibility, and the Williams sisters, despite their wins at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, remain more committed to major titles than ranking spots. So that leaves us with Jankovic, a player of remarkable consistency, as well as mental and physical resilience. Most champions—like, say, Rafael Nadal in 2008—have success at Grand Slam events and then ascend to the No. 1 position. Jankovic has essentially eaten her dessert first. The question now is whether she’ll be heartened and inspired enough by this success to translate it back into a win at a Grand Slam sometime soon. The leading question for the WTA in 2009 may be, Is there more to Jankovic’s game than just week-to-week consistency and resilience, or is she just a placeholder for the next true No. 1?
The last two Sundays, in Beijing and Stuttgart, have made me think that our favorite distractible drama queen is getting more ambitious in her old age, and that her game may have more to offer than what she’s shown so far. Jankovic has struggled in finals in the past (she was 6-10 in them before Beijing) and has often seemed satisfied just to reach the later rounds of events. None of that is surprising for a late-bloomer and chronic head case who almost quit the game three years ago and likely never expected to be challenging for Slams. But rather than backing into the top spot this time, Jankovic seized both of these tournaments and won them with what I took to be a new sense of entitlement.
The match that was most representative of her attitude in Stuttgart was her three-set semifinal win over Venus Williams. Jankovic played the first set in her usual manner—smooth and steady, taking few risks and running everything down. There’s a wallboard-like efficiency to her game, but she’s a stylishly constructed wallboard. There’s nothing extraneous to her strokes, which doesn’t mean they’re strictly utilitarian, either. Jumping, taking the ball early, never off-balance, redirecting the ball at will, Jankovic has more grace than can be contained in the word “grinder.”
Against Venus, though, it wasn’t quite enough to get her through the first set, which she lost in a tight tiebreaker. It may have been a blessing. Rather than losing confidence, Jankovic reacted the way a No. 1 should: She got mad. She had already been hitting her first serve with a little more extension and authority, particularly wide in the deuce court, than she usually does. Through the second set, she did the same with her ground strokes. For the rest of the match, Jankovic took the initiative in rallies and got Williams on the run by hitting the ball earlier, harder, and closer to the lines. She followed those shots up with swing volleys, overheads, and touchy-feely stretch volleys. More than anything, Jankovic showed off her unique ability to hit the ball down the line with lots of pace and little margin. If she does go on to be a long-term No. 1, that may be her contribution to the evolution of women's tennis.
Two moments from her semi with Williams stick out. The first came when Jankovic was up 6-5 in the second set and at deuce on Venus’ serve. As I said, the Serb had worked herself back into the match by hitting with more abandon. But she had missed a go-for-broke forehand on the previous point, which would have given her the set. Now, after a long, exhausting rally, she went for another forehand up the line and even added a loud whoop as she hit the ball. It worked: The shot was a winner that left Williams, for one of the few times in her life, huffing and puffing. Jankovic hadn't let her earlier miss make her more cautious. She went on to break for the set.
The second moment came when Jankovic was up a break in the third set at 3-1, but was faced with three break points. Venus had broken her back at one point in the previous set, and she looked almost certain to do it again here—she's always been a tough player to finish off. But Jankovic went deep into her well and came back with three very different, but equally effective answers. She won the first break point with a big-cut forehand that landed near the baseline; she won the second by putting Williams on a string and moving her back and forth along the baseline; and she won the third with a crafty little sharp-angle, heavy-topspin flick forehand that landed at the corner of the service line and sideline. Jankovic held from there and never looked back.
Picture that last shot for a second: Who did it remind you of? That’s right, Martina Hingis. In her fluidity, variety, love of competition, and lack of explosiveness Jankovic bears more than a passing resemblance to Martina Hingis. The Swiss used those subtle skills to sneak in five major titles, but she couldn’t match the Williamses' power. Jankovic has had the same trouble at the big events; she fought hard but finally couldn’t track enough of Serena’s missiles down in the final at Flushing Meadows this year. In the last two sets against Venus in Stuttgart, though, Jankovic proved that she can go for more, can expand her comfort zone, can dictate rather than scramble, and still remain as consistent and versatile as she’s always been. She may have more explosiveness than she's allowed herself to show in the past. She'll need it, even if it costs her some consistency, to win the big matches that Hingis couldn't win later in her career.
Like I said, Jankovic’s mid-career desire for more success will be a—perhaps the—women’s story going into next season’s major events. It’s not like she doesn’t have the personality of a winner. I’ve never see anyone as simultaneously theatrical and wholly concentrated on the task at hand. Jankovic may be the least isolated, least alone great player on a tennis court since John McEnroe. During the most crucial games of the Stuttgart semi, late in the second set, she gesticulated wildly toward her box after missing a ball and engaged in running monologues with her coach and her mom. After one backhand miss, she let out a “Nooo!!!” that sounded not unlike a female Chewbacca. But when she finally broke at 5-6, Jankovic gave the crowd a wide smile as she watched her last shot sail past Venus and land on the line for a winner. It was a look of genuine joy at playing tennis, without a hint of gloating in it. She kept smiling toward her entourage as she walked off the court. Whether angry or happy or wacky, Jankovic is the rare player who can share the sport with the people watching her and still perform at her best.
That doesn’t mean Jankovic is a sweetheart. She milks arguments with the umpire to annoyingly dramatic effect, and, like her fellow Serb Novak Djokovic, she can lose her patience with the ball kids who don’t bring her sweaty towel to her quickly enough. And just because Jankovic engages the crowd doesn’t she isn’t single-minded, even a little ruthless, about winning—even up 5-2 in the third, she wasn't afraid to take an injury timeout.
Hmm…single-minded and a little ruthless on the inside, not always a sweetheart on the outside: Sounds like a No. 1 to me.
