Jelena Jankovic defeated world No 1 Dinara Safina to win the Cincinnati Open 6-4, 6-2 on Sunday evening.
Jankovic, the world No 5, won the $2-million title against the Russian who was playing in her eighth final of a season that has seen her emulate her brother, Marat, in rising to the top of the rankings.
The Serbian, on the other hand, began the year as No 1 but has seen her ranking slip after a poor set of results by her standards which have seen her win just one other tournament, the clay event in Marbella in April.
Jankovic claimed her 10th career title despite having come through one of the toughest matches of her career on Saturday when she saved four match points to and won her semi-final against Safina's compatriot Elena Dementieva from 6-2 down in the third set tiebreak.
"It's been a while since I've been in this sort of final," she said. "I'm so thrilled to play this kind of match and beat the number one player in the world."
Safina had ended the run of comeback girl Kim Clijsters in the quarter-finals and also saw off in-form Flavia Pennetta in the last four but she had no answer to the Serbian, who triumphed in one hour and 25 minutes.
The world No 1 has won just three titles this season, despite her consistent performances, and was runner-up in all three Grand Slams so far - and has never won a major title despite being ranked as the world's best.
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