STUTTGART, Germany -- For a woman who loves fast cars, Jelena Jankovic is at the right tournament at the Porsche Grand Prix.
Whether it will make traffic cops back in Serbia happy is another question.
So far, they have been giving her breaks but eventually her speeding might get her into trouble. Especially if she wins this tournament and drives home in a Porsche 911 Turbo convertible. The winner can also opt for the other option, $92,410 in cash.
"I am a careful driver but I do like to drive fast, do a little slalom through the traffic," Jankovic said Monday. "But when you are very well-known over there, you can get away with it.
"The policeman stops me, I open the window and he says, 'Oh, It's you Jelena. We wish you good luck. We cheer for you. We get up at 3 a.m. to watch you play.' I give them something for coffee or beer and they say, 'Go,"' Jankovic said on the low-key first day of the star-studded indoor tournament.
Eight of the top 10 players are participating, with only Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams absent.
In Monday's two matches, last year's runner-up Tatiana Golovin beat Martina Mueller 6-1, 6-1 and Dinara Safina rallied to beat Katarina Srebotnik 5-7, 6-2, 6-4. Safina finished off the match with two straight aces, after making two double-faults at match point.
Jankovic, No. 3 in the world, reached the quarterfinals last year and is looking for her fifth tournament victory of the season.
"I played a lot of tournaments and I am proud of what I've done. The year started amazingly. I got motivated, I wanted more - the whole year has been amazing. At the start of the year I felt unbeatable.
"But next year I'll cut down and concentrate on the majors," said Jankovic, who reached the semifinals of the French Open for her best Grand Slam result this year.
Jankovic, top-ranked Justine Henin, No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova and No. 4 Anna Chakvetadze have byes in the first round. Henin will play Safina and Chakvetadze will meet Golovin in the second round.
Jankovic, Henin, Kuznetsova and No. 5 Ana Ivanovic also have already booked berths in the WTA Championship, the season-ending tournament in Madrid, Spain, from Nov. 6-11. Four places are still up for grabs.
Henin, who won the French Open and the U.S. Open this year, said this season "has been so good and so positive."
