Jelena Jankovic continued her impressive preparation for the French Open when she beat world number three Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-1 in the final of the Italian Open on Sunday.
The 22-year-old Serb, seeded three in Rome, was far too consistent for her Russian adversary, who made a series of unforced errors to lose eight of her 10 service games.
"It's an unbelievable win for me. I've got better and better through the week," said Jankovic, who moves up to fourth in the world when the new rankings are published on Monday.
The title was Jankovic's third of 2007 and her second on clay following her victory at the prestigious Family Circle Cup in Charleston last month.
It also capped a year of steady progress for the Serb, who came into last year's Rome tournament on the back of 10 successive defeats but reached the quarter-finals to start her climb up the world rankings.
"I almost thought of quitting tennis," she admitted. "But it was here that everything turned around. And now one year later I'm here holding the trophy and I'm number four in the world. It's amazing."
Kuznetsova had finished runner-up in three tournaments this year, including last week's claycourt German Open in Berlin, and had not dropped a set on her way to the Rome final, but her hard-hitting baseline game was misfiring.
Several times the second seed rallied herself into a winning position only to blast the shot that should have been a winner long or wide.
She battled back from a break down three times in the first set. In the 11th game, however, she netted a smash and a backhand and was passed by a service return down the line by Jankovic to drop serve for the fourth time.
Kuznetsova failed to lift her level in the opening game of the second set -- a series of unforced errors culminating in a forehand into the net to drop serve again.
She managed to break back, but her confidence dipped as more unforced errors flowed off her racquet and she dropped three more service games - two of them to love - as Jankovic cruised to victory.
'NO HENIN'
Asked whether she could now be considered favourite for the French Open, Jankovic laughed and replied: "I'll tell you why I won this tournament. I won this tournament because Justine Henin was not here.
"She's such a great champion. We always have tough matches, but I always lose 6-4 in the third (set). I need to beat her, and then I'll have more confidence."
Jankovic has lost all five of her matches against the world number one, including three on clay.
Kuznetsova struggled to explain her record of four defeats in four finals this year.
"I had more balls to attack than defend in the first set. If I had used at least 50 percent of them, the match would have been completely different," said Kuznetsova.
"Maybe it's something mental - it's something that only happens in finals usually. I know I can play so much better than I did today."
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