Jelena Jankovic's career has for a long time been in the slump, but this week it has suffered the biggest blow, as the former world number one has for the first time since August 2006 exited the Top 20 in the WTA rankings and put the cherry on the cake by losing the Brussels opener to Simona Halep for her fourth first-round exit in four clay court events and seventh loss of the opener this season.

After falling in the first rounds of Stuttgart (retirement against Wozniacki), Madrid (4-6 7-6(5) 6-4 loss to Carla Suarez Navarro) and Rome (6-3 4-6 7-6(4) loss to Sorana Cirstea), Jankovic battled Halep for two hours and 54 minutes, had three match points in the third set, but lost nevertheless, 6-2 3-6 7-6(3).

Jankovic is now heading to Roland Garros without matches won on clay, besides in the April's Fed Cup. Last year, Jankovic reached the fourth round of Roland Garros, while in 2007, 2008 and 2010 she was the semifinalist. (source: WTA Tour, photo courtesy of Francesca Moscatelli)

Jelena Jankovic and Anna Chakvetadze both suffered first-round exits at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, but luckily the fact that they are in one of the most beautiful cities in the world has helped them ease their woes to an extent. As Jankovic shared on Twitter, she went sightseeing and shopping with Chakvetadze. Also, the fun-loving Jankovic showed a photo of them looking "cool trying out some sunglasses".

The former world No.1 Jankovic, who has this week dropped to the edge of Top 20, followed up her Stuttgart and Madrid first-round exits with the same outcome in Rome, crashing out to Sorana Cirstea in a 6-3 4-6 7-6(4) nail-biter. Former world No.5 Chakvetadze, currently ranked 337th, lost to Sloane Stephens 6-2 2-6 6-4.

The 2008 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix champion Jelena Jankovic started her first round encounter with Caroline Wozniacki well, earning a 3-1 lead and even having chances to make it bigger, but the sixth-seeded Dane then went on a roll, won five straight games to take the first set 6-3. In the ninth game Jankovic had three break opportunities, but Wozniacki was not looking back and continued the momentum in the second set by breaking Jankovic's serve right away. The disappointment then struck, as Jankovic retired after 55 minutes of play.

Serbia lost another representative this Wednesday in Stuttgart, when Ana Ivanovic fell to wildcard Mona Barthel 7-5 7-6(4).

Another match was cut short by injury today – second seed Maria Sharapova advanced when Alize Cornet called it a day at 6-3 1-0 because of a right shoulder injury in their second round match. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Women's Tennis Blog is back! Sorry for this week of absence. I traveled to Brussels and I had expected I would be updating my blog, but access to the Internet was too expensive and complicated so I decided to make a short break. Anyways, there was only the Fed Cup going on over the weekend and Serbia and the Czech Republic became the finalists when Serbia defeated Russia 3-2 and the Czechs defeated Italy 4-1 in the semis. The Fed Cup final will be played in the beginning of November.

Let's see what else happened this past week:

• Kim Clijsters is still recovering from her hip injury and will skip the French Open.
• Svetlana Kuznetsova shocked with a new haircut.
• Jelena Jankovic is reportedly on a trial with coach Zeljko Krajan, who has stopped working with Dominika Cibulkova this month. Krajan is most famously known for his cooperation with Dinara Safina.
• Andrea Petkovic returned to action for the first time since Sydney, playing the Fed Cup, but lost her singles rubber to Sam Stosur.
• Caroline Wozniacki released music video for "Oxygen".
• Maria Sharapova turned 25 on April 19. Yes, just 25!

Referring to her statement in the Telegraph:

I think tennis players are actually underpaid, but I might be a little biased. I like to think we are rewarded for the hard work we put in.

Thanks for the patience, friends. From tomorrow I'll resume normal posting.

Caroline Wozniacki is through to the quarterfinals of the e-Boks Open, remaining undefeated at her home tournament since its founding in 2010. After a tricky opener against Urszula Radwanska, Wozniacki, so far always seeded No.1 at the e-Boks Open, comfortably defeated Pauline Parmentier 6-2 6-1, for her 12th straight win there and the number of 17 sets won in a row.

Second seed Angelique Kerber needed much more energy to advance to the final eight, but eventually defeated Anne Keothavong 4-6 6-3 6-3 for an all-German meeting against Mona Barthel.

Serbs Jelena Jankovic and Bojana Jovanovski are also through. The third-seeded Jankovic beat Yulia Putintseva 6-3 6-1, losing just one game from 3-3 in the first set. Jovanovski pulled off an upset, beating fourth seed Monica Niculescu 6-7(6) 6-4 6-1.

Here are the e-Boks Open quarterfinal pairs: Caroline Wozniacki (1) vs. Alize Cornet, Bojana Jovanovski vs. Petra Martic, Kaia Kanepi (5) vs. Jelena Jankovic (3), Mona Barthel (6) vs. Angelique Kerber (2). (photo: © Neal Trousdale)