The energy emanating from world No. 5 Jelena Jankovic is rare. In one sense, she is exceptionally driven. This, after all, is a woman who has played 26 tournaments over the past year -- quite a workload compared to the likes of Justine Henin's 15, Maria Sharapova's 15 and Serena Williams' 12.

But the other side of Jankovic can best be described as flip. On the court, she is prone to occasional bouts of laughter at her own foibles -- particularly when matches go longer than anticipated. One example took place several weeks ago during her second-round match at the Sony Ericsson Open, when she fought back Saturday night from a 1-5 third-set deficit versus Sofia Arvidsson to win a concluding tiebreaker 11-9. That match ended past midnight. At 2:30 a.m. Sunday, Jankovic told reporters she was tossing and turning in bed, hardly the best state for someone who had to play another match that afternoon. But she won that one handily, and a few days later went on to reach the final against Serena Williams. When you play Jankovic, said Williams, "you always have to be on your toes."

From week to week, Jankovic regularly posts fine results. Consider just a few highlights from 2008: semifinal appearance at the Australian Open, semifinal at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, final in Miami, semis in Dubai, quarterfinal in Doha.

Building off what appears to be fairly solid physical fitness, the keys to Jankovic's success are movement and solid counterpunching skills. Her backhand is rock-solid, particularly when she drives it down the line. And her fighting skills have come through on many occasions.

Yet at the same time, Jankovic's mental fitness is another issue. There's a beguiling emotional fatalism surrounding this articulate 23-year-old....more

(via ontennis.com)

The bearable lightness of being Jelena Jankovic