Sportnet forum

Q. There's one American woman left in the tournament.

JELENA JANKOVIC: Really?

Q. There are two Serbian women left in the tournament.

JELENA JANKOVIC: That's really strange stats (laughter). We're such a small country. Especially now that we split, Montenegro is now separated from Serbia. So really, we are.

Q. You're not SCG any more, just S?

JELENA JANKOVIC: I don't know yet. My father is from Montenegro, my mother is from Serbia. We don't know what is happening now.

Q. You might play for Montenegro?

JELENA JANKOVIC: I don't know yet what is going on. It's the politics. I have nothing to do with that.

Q. You were a top 20 player.

JELENA JANKOVIC: Yes. I dropped from 17 to 40.

Q. The game was really sliding. Was there a point where you thought maybe you blew your chance, maybe you weren't going to be a top 20 player, maybe you just wanted to study and this wasn't the sport for you?

JELENA JANKOVIC: There came a moment when I thought I really don't enjoy to play tennis any more. Also I had a virus after I played finals in Korea last year in October. Two months I needed to recover.

Since then, I started, you know, not to enjoy tennis as much as I did before, like I do now. Sometimes I had bad situations. You know when you come on the court, you don't feel like you want to practice, you don't want to play the match, you're not excited. And that's what happened to me.

I thought, I will just study, I want to focus on something else. I wasn't thinking as much about tennis because I didn't really enjoy. And I'm the person who likes to do things and I want to love tennis and I want to play just because I love to play, not because I'm playing just because for no reason, I don't enjoy.

When I stop enjoying, I will just hang my racquet on the wall and I won't play any more. But now I really changed the thinking. After all this bad period, I think I learned a lot. It was a big experience for me, a learning experience. I think I just became stronger as a player and as a person as well.

I think more positively about life and about everything else. So I think it was sometimes some things are meant to be just to change the thoughts and your path, kind of, of the life.

Q. Your country has been in turbulent times. What kind of effect has that on you?

JELENA JANKOVIC: When I was younger, when I was 14 years old, when it was a war, I remember at that time I was really scared. At that time I was in America and my family was in Serbia. We were just looking like on the TV, watching the TV, bombs there, bombs there. My father calls, they have no electricity. You know, so many things happened. At that time I wasn't even playing. I didn't play any tournament when I was 14 years old.
So it was a tough period for every, you know for every person there. But now it's the past. I don't want to think about that. I just want to think about the present and enjoy the good moments.

Q. How is it now with Serbia and Montenegro splitting for you, with your mother and father?

JELENA JANKOVIC: It's okay. We live in Serbia. I really don't know because it's not my parents have to discuss all these things and see how it's going to go. I really don't know yet what is going on.