Does Jelena Jankovic deserve to be the #1 ranked women’s tennis player?
- Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 8:48
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On Yahoo answers, member Scrubs wanted to know “What happened to wta tennis ranking? Its completely screwed up! Jelena Jankovic’s being number 1 is ridiculous.”
Scrubs isn’t the only person who seems to take issue with Serbian Jelena Jankovic holding the #1 position in the women’s tennis association rankings. Even some of Tennis’s most noted analysts have hinted that Jankovic is merely the beneficiary of a crazy ranking system that will allow a player of average talent to reach the #1 position not because she is the best player on the tour but because she is the most active and is able to win enough tournaments to collect the points needed to make it to theĀ top.
As rsv1973 said in answer to Scrubs’ question: “If you play a brutal schedule, reach many semis and a few finals, you will rake up points to get to the top”.
Jelena Jankovic is known for playing many tournaments and reaching at far as the semis in most. Add that to the fact that there really aren’t any women in professional tennis right now who are dominating the field. With Justine Henin gone and the Williams sisters hardly what they used to be, Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic not living up to expectations, points are getting pretty evenly distributed and this helps an active and consistent player like Jelena Jankovic.
Tennis analyst Mary Carillo had this to say on the subject:
“It is a very Hingis-like No. 1.”
“She stopped winning majors but picked up enough other events. Like Hingis, Jankovic plays enough events to win enough points to get there.”
