Jankovic making home here. Top Of The Crosby Estates

INDIAN WELLS — Life high on a hill atop Rancho Santa Fe soon is to begin for Jelena Jankovic. Would that her tennis have similar elevation. Jankovic’s game has been askew since she began the 2009 season as the ranking player on the WTA Tour, but no player around here was talking more animatedly yesterday than the Serbian woman. It’s not tennis that excites her as much as the prospect of occupying the home she is having built in Rancho Santa Fe. Jankovic said she visited the site before coming here for the BNP Paribas Open. “They were putting the roof on. It’s like a dream come true,” she said of a home that, by her measurements, is to have three levels with 20,000 square feet of living space and have a garage large enough for 10 vehicles. “I have five (cars) for now,” said Jelena, who evidently does a lot of driving. Jankovic became aware of the joys of living in the San Diego area when she was competing in tennis events at La Costa. “I picked a lot on a hill,” she said. Its cost, according to San Diego County records: $1.5 million. Jelena advised her architect the place must include a tennis court (it does). “And I wanted a big master bedroom and a huge bathroom,” she said. Done. She is hopeful of moving in by the end of the year. Jankovic’s season, meantime, has not begun positively, with a first-round loss (to Agnes Szavay ) at Sydney and a third-round defeat (to Alona Bondarenko ) at the Australian Open. “But I am working hard,” she said. “I feel every day I am getting better and better. I want to work on coming forward.” Jankovic is the No. 6 seed here. Nothing all that dramatic is apt to occur in the opening round of a tennis tournament with a 96-player draw that hands out 32 seeds and awards all 32 byes. The women’s phase of the Paribas did, however, show off a Justine Henin who soundly eliminated Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-2. “I need tennis; I need to play,” said Henin. “Emotionally, I feel much better when I am playing.”