Day 3 - An interview with Jelena Jankovic  - Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Q. You were sick last week in the last tournament. How do you feel today? Do you still feel some ‑‑ do you feel tired about it still or ‑‑

JELENA JANKOVIC: No, I feel fine. And in Strasbourg, it was hot, very, very hot. It was almost 40 degrees, so that day I wasn't feeling well. And after that match, I was throwing up and didn't feel that great. That's why I couldn't play my semifinal.

But after two days, I was taking care and I was resting and taking a lot of medicine, and now I'm healthy.

Q. Are you feeling the pressure because you're among the favorites for the title or does it really not bother, just enjoying yourself?

JELENA JANKOVIC: It doesn't really bother me. I'm just enjoying myself. I just want to try to give my maximum every time I step on the court, and that's all I care about.

Q. What did you do since you got to Paris, because you couldn't practice that much, I guess.

JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, I didn't do much. I was just training, especially with the strain. We couldn't even practice, even if I wanted to, I couldn't do it. But it helped me. I rested and I recovered well and I'm ready to play.

Q. And so what do you feel about your first match, the conditions, your game, everything?

JELENA JANKOVIC: I was a little bit nervous today. It was my first match. It's normal. You don't play your best tennis in the first match. But I'm getting used to the atmosphere to the courts, and it was a little bit slow. The balls were quite heavy.

But it's good to pass the first round and hopefully I'll get better and better.

Q. For many years all we, in most of the world, heard about Serbia was terrible things.

JELENA JANKOVIC: Yes.

Q. Now, with three of you in the top 10, is it too much of an exaggeration to say that there's a new image that you're helping to create of your country?

JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, I think the sports, the athletes in general, are the best for the country. It's really amazing how we have all of a sudden three top 10 players in the world. And I'm really proud of that, and hopefully we'll continue to improve and become better and better.

Q. It's a bit of a ‑‑ would you call it a coincidence? I mean, you come from such different places.

JELENA JANKOVIC: It is. It is big place. It's just amazing how before we didn't have anybody and we don't have a tradition in tennis. We are very good in team sports, but in individual sports, we didn't have much success. So now it's changing. Tennis is becoming really, really popular in our country and hopefully we will have many younger players coming up as well.

Q. Comparing this year to last year, when you walked into Roland Garros, last year you were just one of the players and now you're ‑‑ can you talk about the difference and how it would be different for you. Do you enjoy it or not enjoy it?

JELENA JANKOVIC: I really don't look at it that way. I'm the same person. Just I improve as a player. I feel more mature, more experienced. But other than that, I really don't think about those things. All I care is to keep improving. I want to train hard and this is what I'm doing at the moment and I just want to try to give my best and we'll see one match at a time.

Q. When you think about last year, what your hopes were for the tournament compared to what your hopes are for the tournament this year ‑‑

JELENA JANKOVIC: It's just amazing what a year can make. It's a big difference for me as a player. At the moment I was No. 4 in the world. Now I think I'm 5. But it's just amazing. And I don't know really how to explain it. Winning three titles this year and two Tier I titles on clay, which gave me a lot of confidence, especially coming to the French Open. It's a great thing for me, so hopefully I can continue my good results.

Q. You've played more tournaments this year than anyone else in the top 20, and with so many injuries on the tour, you're a bit the iron woman. What's your secret to staying fit? Is it luck? Is it ‑‑ how are you managing to do this week in, week out?

JELENA JANKOVIC: I don't know. Like I said, I'm training really hard. I'm trying to keep my body in shape and I have my physio who travels with me and he's helping me to do my exercises and to be strong. And that's basically ‑‑ but you never know. I twisted my ankle and that's also unlucky. So I'm trying to stay healthy, but also sometimes, you know, have luck.

I'm working really hard. I'm trying to do the best that I can so that I'm in shape and ready to play my matches.

Q. Is it mental as much as physical?

JELENA JANKOVIC: I think it's both. It's both. You have to be ready mentally and physically to be in the top of the game.

Q. And does your humor, which you're so famous for, does that help with the grind?

JELENA JANKOVIC: I don't know. I'm just the person who likes to laugh. I like to enjoy and I like to make jokes, especially with my team. We all have good sense of humor. It helps to stay positive and to work hard and to work with a smile.

Q. Have you been home lately to get a feeling that everybody's saying, hey, Jankovic, and Anna, Novak, are you really making an impression at home, do you think?

JELENA JANKOVIC: What do you mean by that?

Q. I mean, are kids running around saying I want to be Anna, I want to be Jelena ‑‑

JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, it's happening now. I think we are, all of us, all the Serbian top players are, I think, motivating and really trying to push the younger kids to do as well. And hopefully we will have tennis center. They're trying to build it and hopefully we will have one. So it will have the younger kids develop their games and make it easier for them to keep improving so that they don't have to go outside the country and practice.

Q. After today's match, if you have a stroke to work on, would it be the serve?

JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah. Sometimes it can be my serve that lets me down and I start making double faults and I don't feel that confident. But I'm working on it. And there's so many things I have to work on. Nothing is perfect. You can always get better.

Q. So in Serbia now the politicians, they want to have their picture taken with you and the people want you to be in television commercials? Are things like that happening?

JELENA JANKOVIC: Yeah, there's a lot of requests. But my No. 1 priority is my tennis. It's my job and I just ‑‑ I'm really focused to do well, and everything else around it, I try to put second on my second priority. So I have to ‑‑ but first is the tennis and then everything else comes after.