Steady Jankovic Last One Standing at Indian Wells

Not all of the big names in the WTA made it out to Indian Wells, and the ones who did (Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova) all crashed out before the quarterfinals.  It's probably not surprising, then, that on one of the slowest hard courts to be found in the world, two counter-punchers were left standing on the final day of action.

And that battle of counter-punchers was a knockout.  Jelena Jankovic controlled the action from wire to wire, racing out to a 3-0 lead with two breaks before the first changeover and never looking back on her way to the 6-2, 6-4 win.

Jankovic has been struggling to find her ideal condition in the last year or so, at one point bulking up to gain power but losing speed as a result.  She sure seems to have found the happy medium between power and speed at this point, cracking winners at the end of several lengthy rallies.

Wozniacki, on the other hand, again was not impressive in a big match.  She has that 2009 US Open final under her belt, but with how decimated her draw was it should probably carry something of an asterisk.  Wozniacki rises to #2 with her performance this week, a feat that is as much a reflection of the inability of anyone not named Serena Williams to turn in consistent performances at the biggest events consistently.  But Serena doesn't play Indian Wells anymore, and with her withdrawal from Miami this week her grasp on the #1 may be in jeopardy soon.  Could Wozniacki be the next Safina? Let's hope not.

A lot of the talk this week, for whatever reason, was about the massive 22,000 sq. ft. house Jankovic is building for herself in San Diego, which should be done by the end of the year.  If she wins every tournament from here on near which she is building herself a mansion, investing in property in the Melbourne, Paris, London, and New York metropolitan areas may not be a bad idea.

What's not as clear is how much real estate Jankovic's Serbian compatriot Ana Ivanovic would need to buy to turn her own career around.   Ivanovic somehow made the finals of this tournament last year, and was therefore defending the vast majority of her ranking points this week.  But after a loss in her first match at Indian Wells to past TDF-profilee Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia, Ivanovic's ranking crashed down thirty spots from #28 to #58, a number which sadly is far more representative of her quality of play over the last year. 

Ivanovic is now in a part of the rankings where she'd theoretically have to play qualifying to get into most Premier tournaments, but I'd have to think that as a darling of many fans, promoters and tournament directors, she'll get more than her fair share of wild cards.  She was a top flight player for almost a year before her win at the 2008 French Open, so it's unfair to say that her success was a fluke.  But she never recovered from winning that title and reaching #1.  The fight and the will still seems to be there, but the game is nowhere to be found.