This week will be Jelena Jankovic’s 10th appearance at the Qatar Total Open, but this time round things are different.
Firstly, the former world No.1 had to battle through three rounds of qualifying for even enter the main draw. Monday saw the Serbian overcome Tsvetana Pironkova in three sets in the final round. The experience was Jankovic’s first taste of playing in a qualifying draw since the 2004 Filderstadt Open, when she reached the quarterfinals as a qualifier at the age of 19.
“It feels great to qualify. First of all I’m really not used to playing qualifying, now I know how hard it is and what it takes to play,” she said in an exclusive interview with Sport 360.
Jankovic’s descent into unfamiliar territory is one that can also be associated with her new coaching partnership with Guillermo Canas, a former top-10 player who reached the quarterfinals at the French Open on three occasions. The 39-year-old Argentine has experience in working with top players. Since his retirement, Canas has mentored Ernests Gulbis, Teymuraz Gabashvili and enjoyed a stint in Kei Nishikori’s team.
This time round it is different for Canas. Jankovic will be the first female player that he has coached on the professional tour and it is unclear to how successful the partnership between the two will be.
“It’s a new partnership, we just started this week, we’ve just been working for a couple of days before this tournament. It’s a brand new relationship, just new ideas, someone new just to kind of change it up. We’ll see how it goes, so far so good,” said Jankovic.
“I was looking for a coach, he was available, and through my agent, we just thought let’s give it a try, let’s see.”
Ironically, it appears that both Jankovic and Canas will be mentoring each other. Speaking to Reem Abulleil, the principle tennis correspondent for Sport 360, Jankovic revealled that she had to explain how the on-court coaching system works. Unlike the men’s tour, the women are allowed to be coached on court if they wished to.
“He’s actually not familiar with that rule (on-court coaching) because in men’s tennis they don’t have that so when I told him we have on court coaching he’s like ‘how does that work, how many times can I get on court?’ She explained.
“He’s getting used to that rule, it’s kind of cool. But I think it takes time to get used to women’s tennis and our rules and the way we kind of work.”
This week Jankovic will be bidding to win only her third main draw match this season. Her first four tournaments of the year saw the Serbian suffer first round losses in Shenzhen, Hobart and Taiwan. The only exception was the Australian Open where she reached the third round for the first time since 2014.
Currently ranked 50th in the world, Jankovic will play Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round in Doha on Tuesday.
