Jelena
Jankovic Interview
Wimbledon
2010
Q. How did you
see that match?
JELENA JANKOVIC: Uhm, first of all, it was a difficult
match. Especially she's a young player. I didn't really
know her game that much. You know, I've seen her play
just once maybe for a little bit. You know, it was our
first match against each other.
She's a young player. She doesn't really have anything to
lose. She had the crowd behind her. On top of that, it
was my first match on grass.
But I was happy I was able to get through. You know, I
had ups and downs. But, you know, it's my first match so
I couldn't expect something special.
Q. What do you think of Laura's potential?
JELENA JANKOVIC: I think she has a good potential. She's
very young. I think she has a good game. She was serving
especially very well today. I think that's one of her
strengths.
Q. What do you need to sharpen up in your game then?
JELENA JANKOVIC: Overall, you know, I had trouble today
returning. You know, I had the toughest time doing that.
Because, like I said, it's my first match on grass, and
she's a lefty player. So she gave me a really hard time.
I thought when I was in the point, I had all the control
and I could play my game. But, you know, I just hope I
can improve, you know, in the next match and play better
and adapt to the grass courts.
Q. Can you remember coming up against a girl of that
age with a serve as good as that?
JELENA JANKOVIC: It's really amazing because, you know,
she's very young and she has a really great serve. You
know, especially, you know, her first serve. I think her
second serve can, you know, be attacked. But her first
serve, when it's going in, it's very tough to return,
especially on grass courts where the ball skids. It's
tough to, you know, get the timing and get the ball back.
Q. Is this the trickiest Grand Slam for you? Because
you say you have to adapt fast to grass and get your act
together as quick as possible.
JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, you know, it's a totally different
game. You know, the points are very short. Uhm, there's
not really much time for anything, you know. You got to
get your first -- you know, whoever gets the first strike
most likely wins the point. And especially serving well
and returning well are the most important things.
You know, adjusting, finding your timing and your
movement, I think it's completely different, of course,
to, you know, clay courts or hard courts. But I'm trying
my best, you know, to get used to it.
Q. Would it be to you the most elusive of all the
Grand Slams for you to win, the most difficult to win?
JELENA JANKOVIC: Probably this one (laughter). Especially
for me, I didn't have much time to practice on grass. You
know, I didn't play any warmup tournament before this. So
today was my first match. It's never easy. You know, it's
a completely different game.
Q. You have excellent movement, though.
JELENA JANKOVIC: My movement is excellent, but I think it
can be better. Sometimes, you know, the way you are
moving, it's much different to clay courts, where, you
know, my last tournament was French Open. Here you
cannot, you know, slide. You got to stop. Especially I
find it quite hard sometimes changing direction.
But I'm getting better and I'm working hard to play well
on this surface. And hopefully I can play better in my
next match.
Q. You know what it takes to get into the top 10, top
5. Do you think Laura could follow at some stage?
JELENA JANKOVIC: Why not? I think she can. Especially
coming from England, I think they have great facilities,
they have great coaches, they have everything in order
for her to become a great player.
But at the end of the day, it all comes to her, you know,
her mentality, her hard work, how much she's willing to
give on the court.
Q. Where do you think you had the advantage today? You
said in the rallies you felt you had an advantage.
JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, I think when we got into the
rally, I had the advantage. I felt like I could control
the points, I could dominate. But, you know, my only goal
was to, you know, start, you know, the point by, you
know, returning, getting the return in.
And then when we were in the point, I felt like I could
control the ball and hit it where I want to.
That was my goal today. That's where I felt most
comfortable. On top of that, holding my serve was very
important because it's very difficult to break.
Q. Is that because her movement is not as good as
yours?
JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, but everybody has, you know, their
weaknesses and their strengths. And, you know, not
everybody can have great movement or not everybody can
have, you know, a great serve or something like that. So
everybody has something that they can rely on.
Q. You're noted for your great backhand down the line.
You had 12 winners with your forehand down the line
today. I thought that was well done by you in thinking of
going down the line with the forehand. Proud of you today
doing it.
JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, I think I'm improving. I'm working
hard on improving different, you know, segments in my
game. I think my forehand worked pretty well today,
especially down the line. I think the down-the-line shots
are very important on grass. My backhand down the line
is, you know, one of my best shots. But the forehand down
the line worked very well today, so I'm happy about that.
Q. Obviously Laura is a young player making her way in
the game. Among the senior pros, she made some quite
controversial comments in a magazine last month. I wonder
what the senior pros on the tour made of those?
JELENA JANKOVIC: I don't really want to get involved in
that. I think she's a young player. I've heard that she's
apologized. I just want to stay, you know, out of that.
This is not really my business.
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