Jankovic wins first Indian Wells title

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – At the start of the BNP Paribas Open, Jelena Jankovic's face was filled with frowns, as she complained of lack of form and motivation. But 12 days later, "JJ's" famous smile returned as she won her first Indian Wells title with a quick and impressive 6-2, 6-4 defeat of new world No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki in the final.

Later, Jankovic, 25, didn't mention having a cold or coming down with a fever or how much the year-after-year grind of the tour was wearing her down. She only spoke of how good she felt and how nice it is to be a threatening and competent player again.

"I don't think you can win this tournament and not play well," she said. "This is the fifth biggest tournament that we have on the tour, so I must have done something right here."

Jankovic did plenty of things right. After nearly going down to Sarah Errani in the second round, where she was two points from defeat, she and her part-time coach Chip Brooks hit the practice court, determined to cut down on her errors and to regain the level of concentration that once made her a feared player.

Mission accomplished, as she immediately hit her stride, yanking a solid group of competitors around the court that included Shahar Peer, Alisa Kleybanova and Samantha Stosur.

"I had really a wakeup call against Errani. I fought really hard in that one," she said. "I really stayed strong mentally and was able to get through. And I really learned my lesson. I cleaned up some of the things in my game, and overall was getting more and more confident with each match."

Wozniacki looked quite sure of herself, too, after a fine tournament that included impressive wins over Nadia Petrova, Jie Zheng and Agnieszka Radwanska, but in the final, the 19-year-old Dane looked no more than paper No. 2, as she was clearly outplayed by former No. 1 Jankovic for the fourth time. She didn't appear to have the weapons, the know how or the grit to subdue the searing Serbian.

While Jankovic has certainly has her ups and downs since she ended 2008 as the highest ranked player in her sport, at least when's she rediscovered her rock solid, quick-fisted form, she hasn't shrunk under the spotlight. Wozniacki has been extremely consistent since the start of last year, reaching nine finals, but she's only won three of them and none of them had near the significance of Indian Wells.

For her part, Jankovic has won two Premier titles in the past eight months, Cincinnati and now Indian Wells, has a rock-solid base, is willing to fight when her head is in the right place, and has continued to work diligently on three weaker parts of her game: her serve, forehand and net play. She has yet to win a Grand Slam, but she doesn't think that she was undeserving No. 1 and is willing to go out and prove that.

She believed that despite her lower ranking, that she was the better player than her foe coming into the match, and there was no question about that during the contest. She was just as fast as Wozniacki, was happy to trade laser shots from the backhand side, had no concerns over the Dane's unimpressive forehand and was consistently willing to attack the short ball. She knew that Wozniacki was incapable of hurting her with her forehand, so she dared her to larger cuts off that side and the Dane mostly failed in her execution.

"I was ready from the start," Jankovic said. "I really went out there knowing my game plan. I wanted to be really aggressive, but at the same time patient and not really go over the limit with some balls."

Up 5-2, 15-0 in the second set, Jankovic watched Wozniacki convert a vicious down-the-line forehand, looked over at her foe and clapped her hand on her racket as if to say 'That's your one today, try to do that again.' Wozniacki couldn't, losing the set 6-2 when she erred on three more forehands.

Jankovic broke Wozniacki to open in the second set when, of course, the Dane committed another forehand error. After the third game, Wozniacki called for her father and coach, Piotr, but despite his enthusiastic gesticulations, she simply couldn't execute. It was Jankovic who moved farther inside the court, it was Jankovic who leapt into short balls, it was Jankovic who played the sturdier defense and adeptly moved her serve around.

Wozniacki couldn't gain a break point in the set and Jankovic pocketed the victory when she took a Wozniacki looper out of the air and tore it down the line with her hatchet-like backhand and then saw the teenager net a forehand return.

"I waited for my opportunities, and when I had them, I took them," Jankovic said. "That was what I did."

Jankovic is back to No. 8 in the rankings, not exactly where a former No. 1 wants to be, but she certainly feels better than she did last summer, when she came into the U.S. Open hoping to better her final-round appearance from 2009 and was stunned in the second round by Yaroslava Shvedova.

If she can find a way to keep consistently fresh, she'll have an opportunity to make significant showings at the majors because, as the world found out at Indian Wells when former Slam champs Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters all went down early, the only woman who has played consistently well at the majors over the past 15 months has been No. 1 Serena Williams. Every other player of note is in mix, and that includes Jankovic.

"The ranking doesn't really matter to me," Jankovic said. "I'm looking to playing some good tennis and really doing the right things out there. And if I'm doing that, I'll be winning big titles and ranking will come on its own. I'm looking to do well in the big events. That is my goal now."