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WIMBLEDON

June 21, 2010

Jelena Jankovic

LONDON, ENGLAND

J. JANKOVIC/L. Robson
6-3, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How did you see that match?
JELENA JANKOVIC: Uhm, first of all, it was a difficult match. Especially she's a young player. I didn't really know her game that much. You know, I've seen her play just once maybe for a little bit. You know, it was our first match against each other.
She's a young player. She doesn't really have anything to lose. She had the crowd behind her. On top of that, it was my first match on grass.
But I was happy I was able to get through. You know, I had ups and downs. But, you know, it's my first match so I couldn't expect something special.

Q. What do you think of Laura's potential?
JELENA JANKOVIC: I think she has a good potential. She's very young. I think she has a good game. She was serving especially very well today. I think that's one of her strengths.

Q. What do you need to sharpen up in your game then?
JELENA JANKOVIC: Overall, you know, I had trouble today returning. You know, I had the toughest time doing that. Because, like I said, it's my first match on grass, and she's a lefty player. So she gave me a really hard time.
I thought when I was in the point, I had all the control and I could play my game. But, you know, I just hope I can improve, you know, in the next match and play better and adapt to the grass courts.

Q. Can you remember coming up against a girl of that age with a serve as good as that?
JELENA JANKOVIC: It's really amazing because, you know, she's very young and she has a really great serve. You know, especially, you know, her first serve. I think her second serve can, you know, be attacked. But her first serve, when it's going in, it's very tough to return, especially on grass courts where the ball skids. It's tough to, you know, get the timing and get the ball back.

Q. Is this the trickiest Grand Slam for you? Because you say you have to adapt fast to grass and get your act together as quick as possible.
JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, you know, it's a totally different game. You know, the points are very short. Uhm, there's not really much time for anything, you know. You got to get your first -- you know, whoever gets the first strike most likely wins the point. And especially serving well and returning well are the most important things.
You know, adjusting, finding your timing and your movement, I think it's completely different, of course, to, you know, clay courts or hard courts. But I'm trying my best, you know, to get used to it.

Q. Would it be to you the most elusive of all the Grand Slams for you to win, the most difficult to win?
JELENA JANKOVIC: Probably this one (laughter). Especially for me, I didn't have much time to practice on grass. You know, I didn't play any warmup tournament before this. So today was my first match. It's never easy. You know, it's a completely different game.

Q. You have excellent movement, though.
JELENA JANKOVIC: My movement is excellent, but I think it can be better. Sometimes, you know, the way you are moving, it's much different to clay courts, where, you know, my last tournament was French Open. Here you cannot, you know, slide. You got to stop. Especially I find it quite hard sometimes changing direction.
But I'm getting better and I'm working hard to play well on this surface. And hopefully I can play better in my next match.

Q. You know what it takes to get into the top 10, top 5. Do you think Laura could follow at some stage?
JELENA JANKOVIC: Why not? I think she can. Especially coming from England, I think they have great facilities, they have great coaches, they have everything in order for her to become a great player.
But at the end of the day, it all comes to her, you know, her mentality, her hard work, how much she's willing to give on the court.

Q. Where do you think you had the advantage today? You said in the rallies you felt you had an advantage.
JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, I think when we got into the rally, I had the advantage. I felt like I could control the points, I could dominate. But, you know, my only goal was to, you know, start, you know, the point by, you know, returning, getting the return in.
And then when we were in the point, I felt like I could control the ball and hit it where I want to.
That was my goal today. That's where I felt most comfortable. On top of that, holding my serve was very important because it's very difficult to break.

Q. Is that because her movement is not as good as yours?
JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, but everybody has, you know, their weaknesses and their strengths. And, you know, not everybody can have great movement or not everybody can have, you know, a great serve or something like that. So everybody has something that they can rely on.

Q. You're noted for your great backhand down the line. You had 12 winners with your forehand down the line today. I thought that was well done by you in thinking of going down the line with the forehand. Proud of you today doing it.
JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, I think I'm improving. I'm working hard on improving different, you know, segments in my game.
I think my forehand worked pretty well today, especially down the line. I think the down-the-line shots are very important on grass.
My backhand down the line is, you know, one of my best shots. But the forehand down the line worked very well today, so I'm happy about that.

Q. Obviously Laura is a young player making her way in the game. Among the senior pros, she made some quite controversial comments in a magazine last month. I wonder what the senior pros on the tour made of those?
JELENA JANKOVIC: I don't really want to get involved in that. I think she's a young player. I've heard that she's apologized. I just want to stay, you know, out of that. This is not really my business.

End of FastScripts

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