PARIS: Jelena Jankovic is rapidly emerging as a potential Grand Slam title winner, but with the pressure cranking up a notch or two in Paris she says she is determined to keep on smiling.
The 22-year-old Serb wears her heart on her sleeve when she plays showing her despair when things go wrong but taking the time out to enjoy the moment when they go well.
That openness was evident once again during the fourth seed's thrilling 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 French Open third round win over Venus Williams on Friday.
When not thrashing balls about the court, Jankovic was in full flow, smiling, screaming, gesticulating and interacting with her noisy entourage in the players box.
"It's just that I am smiling all the time," said the former world junior No.1 who has rebounded in sensational style in the last year after having considered giving the game up for good due a run of 12 straight defeats.
"I am a person who likes to laugh a lot ... and the others, they are always laughing, always making jokes.
"You see the other players so quiet in the corner, you don't hear them. Then you see the clowns over there.
"It's just how we are. It's my personality. Why not when it's a good point, why not smile. There's nothing wrong with that."
Most important of all though she insists is the presence of her mother Snezano, once a promising handball player who, Jankovic says, was discouraged from joining the national team because her mother wanted her to concentrate on her studies. "My grandmother wanted her to stay at home and just go to school and just live a normal life, not to play, especially handball which was a little bit of a manly sport, so she quit," she said.
"But my mom for me, she is my best friend and she's always there for me and always very, very supportive in the good and the bad times."
The way Jankovic is playing at the moment her extended clan could be celebrating with her in eight days time.
