In August, Janković reached her fifth career final and first of the year at the LA Championships in Los Angeles, defeating Serena Williams (ranked world No.

[10] Janković's strong start to the year meant that some considered her a title threat at the Australian Open; however, she was eliminated in the fourth round by the eventual champion Serena Williams, who was ranked 81st in the world at the time.

Janković reached two semifinals in the Middle East in the spring, retiring against Mauresmo due to an ankle injury at the Dubai Championships, and losing in three sets to Justine Henin at the Qatar Ladies Open in Doha.

Janković rebounded in the clay-court season, defeating Venus Williams on a third set tiebreak in the semifinals of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina.

After registering her third consecutive victory over Venus Williams in the third round, she went on to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the second time in her career, but lost there to eventual champion Henin.

The next week, Janković reached the final of the Ordina Open in the Netherlands and became the first player since Chris Evert in 1974 to win 50 matches in the first half of a year.

[9] During the North American summer hardcourt season, Janković reached the semifinals of the East West Bank Classic in Carson, California but lost there to fellow Serb Ana Ivanovic, having held two match points in the final set.

The following week, Janković played in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, where she defeated Venus Williams in the semifinals and Nadia Petrova in the final.

In the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, Janković defeated defending champion Dementieva in the semifinals before triumphing against Vera Zvonareva in the final for her third title in three weeks, the first time for a player on the WTA Tour to do so since 2005.

[22] As the top seed at the year-end 2008 WTA Tour Championships held in Doha, Janković won two of her three round-robin matches, including only the second win of her career over Ivanovic.

[27] Beginning her spring clay-court season at the Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella, Janković defeated fifth-seeded Spaniard Carla Suárez Navarro in three sets for her first title of 2009.

Janković beat Anabel Medina Garrigues in the Fed Cup play-offs against Spain to bring the Serbian team into the World Group for the first time.

Despite her good form leading up to the US Open, Janković's inconsistency continued, as she suffered a shock second-round defeat by Yaroslava Shvedova despite having match points in the third-set tie-break.

At the WTA Tour Championships, Janković lost her first match to Azarenka but bounced back defeating Safina and Wozniacki to clinch the first berth in her group.

Janković was the 15th seed at the Wimbledon Championships, but lost to María José Martínez Sánchez in the first round,[29] her first opening-round exit in a Grand Slam since the 2005 French Open.

At the Western & Southern Open, Janković defeated four top-25 players en route to the semifinals: Sabine Lisicki, Ekaterina Makarova, Sloane Stephens, and Roberta Vinci.

At Indian Wells, she defeated Yvonne Meusburger, Magdaléna Rybáriková, and Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals against Agnieszka Radwańska.

At the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, she reached the semifinals after recording wins over Mona Barthel, Flavia Pennetta and Alisa Kleybanova.

This tournament revitalized her career and opened her path to a successful Chinese hard court season, right after the second round of the Rogers Cup and an excellent semifinal in Cincinnati after beating Madison Keys and eighth-seeded Karolína Plíšková en route.

9 and top-seeded Angelique Kerber (Janković's third top-ten win of the year), coming back from a set down to capture the title with a three-set victory.

[50] Seeded 18th at the Miami Open, Janković withdrew from her second-round match against qualifier Magda Linette due to a right shoulder injury.

[92] Janković eventually announced her retirement in July 2022, saying she has accepted that her body no longer allows her to play professional tennis and that she would make her health and her child, a priority.

[101] Their most important meeting to date was in the semifinals of the 2008 French Open; the match was one of historic proportions as it would decide which of the two would become the first Serbian player, male or female, to gain the world No.

The pair were involved in a long-running feud in early 2010, arising from Ivanovic's decision not to play in Serbia's Fed Cup World Group play-off against Slovakia due to her poor form at the time.

[103] They met in a controversial encounter at the Madrid Premier Mandatory tournament in May that year, in which Janković appeared to criticise and imitate Ivanovic's fist-pumping habit following a three-set victory.

The others are Venus Williams, Mary Joe Fernández, Justine Henin, Patty Schnyder, Anabel Medina Garrigues, Simona Halep, and Johanna Konta.

Her net game has improved as a result of additional doubles play, meaning that she is now able to hit effective drive, drop, and swinging volleys.

'[citation needed][123] Janković was the subject of the 2008 autobiographical documentary, Jelenin svet (Jelena's World),[124] featuring Justine Henin, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic, Elena Dementieva, Anna Chakvetadze and other notable players.

Janković is the second Serbian tennis star to have volunteered to help promote the rights of children and collect funds for UNICEF after Ana Ivanovic became an ambassador in September.

[127] Chris Evert (1975/1985 – 260 w) Evonne Goolagong (1976 – 2 w) Martina Navratilova (1978/1987 – 331 w) Tracy Austin (1980 – 22 w) Steffi Graf (1987/1997 – 377 w) // Monica Seles (1991/1996 – 178 w) Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (1995 – 12 w) Martina Hingis (1997/2001 – 209 w) Lindsay Davenport (1998/2006 – 98 w) Jennifer Capriati (2001/2002 – 17 w) Venus Williams (2002 – 11 w) Serena Williams (2002/2017 – 319 w) Kim Clijsters (2003/2011 – 20 w) Justine Henin (2003/2008 – 117 w) Amélie Mauresmo (2004/2006 – 39 w) Maria Sharapova (2005/2012 – 21 w) Ana Ivanovic (2008 – 12 w) Jelena Janković (2008/2009 – 18 w) Dinara Safina (2009 – 26 w) Caroline Wozniacki (2010/2018 – 71 w) Victoria Azarenka (2012/2013 – 51 w) Angelique Kerber (2016/2017 – 34 w) Karolína Plíšková (2017 – 8 w) Garbiñe Muguruza (2017 – 4 w) Simona Halep (2017/2019 – 64 w) Naomi Osaka (2019 – 25 w) Ashleigh Barty (2019/2022 – 121 w) Iga Świątek (2022/2024 – 125 w) Aryna Sabalenka (2023/2024 – 9 w)