Jankovic jumps to semi-finals

New York – Jelena Jankovic shocked herself as much as she shocked anybody else by beating the third top-ten player in succession. The last Grand Slam of the year could not have had a less likely semifinalist of any age, sex or nationality than Jelena Jankovic. Showing her best ever in a Grand Slam, the 19th-seeded Serbian knocked out fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva to score a 6-2, 6-1 victory in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open.

The quickest player to laugh on the WTA tour displayed her serious self on Tuesday, beating the higher-ranked Russian and making her place in the semi-finals, leaving the spectators flabbergasted.

"I cannot believe I won in two sets. What was the score?" she asked, incredulously.
"I don't even know the score. Oh, my God, 6-2, 6-1. Don't believe," she said, breaking into her usual off-court fit of giggling.

Jankovic took one-set jump on the fifth-ranked player in the world in less than half-an-hour. Dementieva never got into her game. She was unable to win any of her service games and failed to hang on.

She has now booked a match against the winner of the quarter-final to be played between Justine Henin-Hardenne and Lindsay Davenport, both former Open champions.

This 21-year-old Serbian advanced to the second round of the Australian Open in January and after that didn't win again until late May, dropping 10 matches in a row, most of them to players mostly described as obscure.

“It was terrible," said Jankovic. "But what can I do? I think overall in life you're not going to always have good times. There are going to be bad times as well. I think when you go through something like this it makes you stronger as a person."

"I didn't know what was wrong with me," she said. "I couldn't play. It didn't have the will to practice, to play. I don't want to win the matches. It was something weird, something I've never felt before. I almost quit playing tennis.”

"I am a person who is quite competitive and I don't like to lose. I don't want to be just in the draw and lose first round every time. I was No. 1 junior in the world. I was used to climbing up the rankings. I am a bad loser."

Her recent results reflect the kind of player she is supposed to be. Jankovic became the first woman into the semis as the rest of the day's men's and women's singles matches were disrupted by rain.