Jelena Jankovic

Jelena Jankovic

Jelena Jankovic finished 2008 as the year-end world No. 1, the first woman to do it without a Grand Slam title. The closest miss came weeks earlier at the US Open, her only major final, lost 6-4, 7-5 to Serena Williams. Six slam semifinals, three of them at Roland Garros, say how often she was one match short; Wimbledon 2007 gave her a slam of another kind, the mixed doubles with Jamie Murray, the first Grand Slam title won by a Serbian woman.

Tennis carried her from Belgrade to Nick Bollettieri's Florida academy, and the game she built was pure elastic: full splits at the baseline, slides on any surface, everything funnelled into a two-handed backhand down the line, the money shot she freely admitted paid the bills. Add the grin and the running commentary and every match became The JJ Show. Her last match came in September 2017, back surgery followed a month later, and the formal retirement waited until July 2022, at 37, with 15 career titles.