Jelena Jankovic has lost in her first WTA Final in 2008 against Serena Williams in 3 sets, 1:6 7:5 3:6. The match that lasted almost 2 and a half hours of epic battle was full of Jelena's (or was it Serena's) up and downs.
Serena was dominating for almost 1 hour and a half, won 6:1 first set, led 3:0 in second set having 2 break games advantage, and just when it looked the match is already finished, Jelena made a huge comeback, re-breaked, lowered Serena's lead to 3:2, 5:4.
Serena served for the match but due to series of errors she did not manage to win a single point, and made it 5:5 in games. Jelena was down 0:40 in the next game, though managed to win it and took a lead for the first time in second set 6:5. After yet another not so well Serena's service game, Jelena won set 7:5.
At that moment it looked Jelena is in the commanding seat of the match, she had a great support from the crowd with many local Serbs there, Serena seemed to have lost her play, Jelena won over Serena in this year's and last year's Australian Open without losing a set, all facts were going to Jelena's favore, still...
Jelena lost service game at the start of 3rd set, was it exhaustion or that she cought a cold effects, just Jelena asked for medical time-out. She complained on problems with breathing and headache. Pause did no good for Jelena, soon Serena led 5:0.Jelena continued to fight, lowered Serena's lead to 5:2, saving several match points during that span, in 8th game Serena led 40:0, Jelena won the next 4 points, then after Serena's 4th match point in that game, Jelena managed to win it and make it 5:3 after which Serena trashed her recket against the ground.
When it looked a miracle comeback is possible, 8 times Grand Slam winner Serena took 40:0 lead, 40:30 and finished the game/set/match. Noise Serena made during each smatch showed how much effort she put in winning the title in the tournament that is only about 15 minutes drive away from her home.
In the end, Serena had 3 times more 'winners' (48:16) and made 56 unforced errors in compare to Jelena's 44. With the win at Miami Open Jelena could have reached World #2 position in the WTA Rankings, with the appearance in the Final Jelena cut the 500 difference behind Ana (Ivanovic) to half.
As for Serena, this is her 5th time to win the title at Miami Open, she is now tied for the all-time record with Steffi Graf whow was 5 time winner in the period from 1987-1996, while Serena previously did it in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2007.
Serena earned $590.000 winning the title, Jelena $295.000 for playing in the Final.
