Demuscling Her Way Back To The Top

I kind of love that Jelena Jankovic wasn't able to lift the trophy when she won Indian Wells. Because I think it means she's moved a long way towards shedding the excess muscle bulk that slowed her down so badly last year.


This means, my friends, that Jelena Jankovic could be on her way back.


It's pretty rare that I say anything positive about any of the Serbian players, what with Jelena being all defensive and Novak being a) irritating and b) suddenly a grinderman and Ana being, well, a big trainwreck. So pay heed to this rare occurrence - I think Jelena Jankovic just might be on the up and up.


I'm not certain about this, but Jelena certainly played better to come through Indian Wells than I have seen her play in a long time - particularly in her final two matches, against Stosur and Wozniacki respectively. Stosur fell apart to an extent, but Jelena really capitalised and never let her get back on her feet. Against Caro, she found the weakness - the forehand - and picked on it over and over again.


She played smart, and I haven't seen her play quite so cleverly for a long, long time.


This is exciting going into the clay season because I think her game is definitely very well suited to clay. And to win a tournament by beating Wozniacki, who plays quite a similar game, is a Very Big Deal Indeed. Sure, you can make the case that Jelena was simply the one that didn't lose, in the way of some WTA tournaments - but I'm not feeling that. Jelena won this one. And my gut says... it says look out, rest of the WTA, because Jelena's going to have a Serbian resurgence all on her own.