page_title: Jelena Janković
section_title: 2008: World No. 1 and first Grand Slam final
hierarchical_section_title: Jelena Janković / Tennis career / 2008: World No. 1 and first Grand Slam final
caption_attribution_description: Jelena Jankovic at the 2008 WTA Tour Championships
context_page_description: Jelena Janković is a Serbian professional tennis player. Janković is a former world No. 1 in singles, a ranking achieved preceding her finals appearance at the 2008 US Open. Janković has won 15 WTA singles titles and two doubles titles, her career highlights include winning the 2007 Wimbledon mixed-doubles title with Jamie Murray, the 2010 Indian Wells Masters, the Internazionali BNL d'Italia twice, in 2007 and 2008, and the aforementioned appearance in the finals of the 2008 US Open.
context_section_description: Janković lost in the semifinals of the Australian Open to eventual champion Maria Sharapova in straight sets, having defeated defending champion Serena Williams en route. In March at the Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, Janković lost in the semifinals to Ana Ivanovic. The following fortnight, Janković reached her first final of the year at the Miami Masters, losing to Serena Williams in three sets.
  Janković started the clay-court season by losing in the quarterfinals of both the Family Circle Cup in Charleston and the German Ope] in Berlin. Janković then successfully defended her Tier I Internazionali BNL d'Italia title in Rome, after defeating Venus Williams in three sets in the quarterfinals, receiving a walkover from the injured Sharapova in the semifinals, and defeating French teenager Alizé Cornet in the final. This was Janković's first singles title of the year. She went into the French Open among the favorites, following the sudden retirement of four-time champion Justine Henin. However, she lost to compatriot and eventual champion Ivanovic after leading by a break in the third set. Janković was the only player to win a set against Ivanovic during the entire tournament. This marked Janković's fourth defeat in four career Grand Slam semifinals. She would have become the world No. 1 had she reached the final. However, she did reach a new career-high of world No. 2 in the week following the tournament.
  At Wimbledon, Janković injured her knee during her third-round match against Caroline Wozniacki. Although she won that match, it visibly hindered her during her fourth-round loss to Tamarine Tanasugarn. Janković would have become the world no. 1 had she reached the semifinals of the tournament. However, she lost to Tamarine Tanasugarn in the fourth round. Janković squandered two further opportunities to immediately take the world no. 1 position with losses in the semifinals of the East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles to Dinara Safina and the quarterfinals of the Rogers Cup in Montreal, to Dominika Cibulková. Janković did eventually replace Ivanovic as the world No. 1 on 11 August 2008. She was the 18th woman to have been ranked world No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association, but the first woman to have done so without ever having reached a Grand Slam final and only the third woman (the others being Amélie Mauresmo and Kim Clijsters) to have become world No. 1 without first winning a Grand Slam title.
  Janković's reign as the world No. 1 lasted only one week, after she lost in the quarterfinals of the Beijing Olympics to eventual silver-medalist Safina. This meant Ivanovic reclaimed the world No. 1 position. Janković was the second seed at the US Open, where she defeated Olympic gold-medalist Elena Dementieva in the semifinals to reach her first Grand Slam final. There, she lost to fourth-seeded Serena Williams. Janković would have reclaimed the world No. 1 position if she had won the event.
  Janković became the world no. 1 again during the fall in the midst of winning three consecutive tournaments. At the China Open, Janković defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova in two sets to win the title. The following week, Janković played in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, where she defeated Venus Williams in the semifinals and Nadia Petrova in the final. In the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, Janković defeated defending champion Dementieva in the semifinals before triumphing against Vera Zvonareva in the final for her third title in three weeks, the first time for a player on the WTA Tour to do so since 2005. As the top seed at the year-end 2008 WTA Tour Championships held in Doha, Janković won two of her three round-robin matches, including only the second win of her career over Ivanovic. However, she lost in the semifinals, to eventual champion Venus Williams and ended the year as world No. 1. In all, Janković lost to eventual champions at six tournaments (including three Grand Slam tournaments) during the season. Janković was later named the ITF World Champion for her performance in 2008. She won four titles during the seaso
caption: Janković at the 2008 WTA Tour Championships
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