Jankovic looks to continue solid season at Bali

Sep 10, 2007 - 3:50 PM BALI, Indonesia (Ticker) -- Jelena Jankovic will be looking for her fifth title of the season at the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic which began on Monday.

The Serbian is the top seed for the $225,000 Tier III event and earned a first-round bye along with second-seeded Daniela Hantuchova.

Jankovic enters the hardcourt tournament having already secured a career-high four titles in 2007, including two at the Tier I events in Charleston and Rome. That helped the 22-year-old rise to a career-best ranking of No. 3 in the world.

In her only previous visit to the Grand Hyatt Bali in 2004, Jankovic was ousted in the first round. She will be eager to improve on that disappointing showing when she gets her campaign underway against either Australian Casey Dellacqua or Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.

Slovakia's Hantuchova will be seeking her second hardcourt title of the season, winning at Indian Wells in March. The 24-year-old, ranked No. 12 in the world, will be making her second appearance at the tournament after being eliminated in the first round last year.

Hantuchova's second-round opponent is Dutch wild card Elise Tamaela, who defeated American Jill Craybas, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, during Monday's first-round action.

Switzerland's Patty Schnyder is a two-time semifinalist in Indonesia and she will try to go even further this year. The 28-year-old has enjoyed some success on hardcourts already this summer, finishing as a runner-up to Russian Maria Sharapova in San Diego.

Schnyder currently sits at No. 13 in the world rankings and will get underway with a first-round clash against Chinese teenager Shuai Zhang later.

Also entered is three-time Grand Slam winner, Lindsay Davenport, who makes her return to singles action three months after giving birth. The 31-year-old American made her first appearance on the WTA Tour since September 2006 in the doubles at New Haven at the end of August. Davenport opens later against No. 5 Eleni Daniilidou of Greece.

In other matches on Monday, France's Youlia Fedossova blanked Taipei's Su-Wei Hsieh, 6-0, 6-0, to set up a second-round match with No. 7 Aiko Nakamura of Japan.

Also, Romanian Edina Gallovits had little trouble with Slovakian Jarmila Gajdosova, 6-1, 6-0. Gallovits next will face No. 8 Yaroslava Shvedova of Russia.

A three-time winner of this event, Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova is the defending champion but is not entered in the event following a runner-up showing at the U.S. Open.

First prize is $32,340.