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Monday 25 August 2008
NEW YORK - Jelena Jankovic goes into the US Open knowing that in order to capture her first Grand Slam title she needs to raise her game to the next level when it counts the most.
The knock on the world number two Jankovic continues to be her failure to breakthrough at a Grand Slam.
The 23-year-old Serbian has yet to reach a final in the 20 Grand Slam appearances and despite going deep into just about every tournament this year she has just one win on her resume.
She blames that in part on injuries.
"I am working very hard and some of the things don't happen overnight," she said. "You can't get your endurance and your strength back in a few days. I will keep working hard and we will see what happens."
In the semi-finals of the French Open, Jankovic appeared to be headed to victory when she was up 2-0 in the third set before losing to countrywoman Ana Ivanovic.
Jankovic has reached the quarter-finals or better in 14 of 15 tournaments this year and was rewarded for her consistent play earlier this month when she earned the world number one ranking for the first time in her career.
But it was a short stay at the top as Ivanovic quickly claimed it back.
Jankovic had to fight through a calf injury to get to the round of eight at the Beijing Olympics. She received pain injections from a doctor prior to her matches.
"There was a problem with my calf in Beijing and I was taking injections to play that tournament," she said. "I had to take the injections so I didn't feel the pain. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to go on the court and play."
Jankovic said tennis recently became the number one sport in Serbia thanks to the success of players like her, Ivanovic and men's No. 3 Novak Djokovic.
"Believe it or not tennis is the most popular sport in Serbia," Jankovic said. "That was never the case before. We didn't have a tradition of producing great tennis players.
"Now we have the top three in the world. It is really amazing. A lot of young kids are playing. A lot of people are so interested tennis. It is a great thing for our country."
She is looking forward to the challenge of competing in the US Open but doesn't know if her conditioning will be enough.
Besides the leg injury in Beijing, she was upset in the fourth round at Wimbledon while dealing with a knee injury.
"Knock on wood I don't have any problems or injuries at the moment.
"I am just trying to get back in shape. I am training hard to get as fit as possible for the tournament.
"It is amazing how quickly you get out of shape and then it takes you a long time to get back there."
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