Sportmaster International

London - Aching Jelena Jankovic slammed Wimbledon officials for exiling her to a minor showcourt as the second-seeded Serb exited with a 6-3, 6-2 fourth-round loss to Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn on Monday.

Jankovic, who only just squeezed through a third-round match on Saturday with a knee injury and a healthy dose of drama, fell out of the race for number one on the WTA with her defeat. ‘I was almost playing in the parking lot, I almost need a helicopter to go to my court,’ complained the highest-ranking woman left the

decimated field. Her exit means that the event has lost all three top seeds on the women’s side - number three Maria Sharapova in the second round and top seed Ana Ivanovic in the third. ‘They told me Court 18 is a TV court,’ said Jankovic, who will have to rest before the summer season in North America with her meniscus injury. ‘But so are Centre Court and Court Number One. This is not a reason to put me on Court 18. ‘What can I do? I couldn’t get frustrated over that. I think it’s wrong, and hopefully it will not happen in the future in this way. ‘The ranking shows who deserves it (show court matches). Who is in the top of the game should play on the top courts.’ Jankovic had to call for the trainer over the knee injury which bothered her during her previous narrow win. The usually smiling 23-year-old also admitted annoyance about being forced to play early after requesting an afternoon start. ‘I was really not happy with the scheduling. I asked to play a little bit later on in the day, which would give me a few more hours to recover and do another therapy in the morning. ‘When I saw that I’m on the schedule at 12:00 in the morning… it’s very unusual for a number two seed to play on Court 18. That’s not really normal. ‘But what can you do? ‘Now that I’ve finished the tournament, I don’t have a risk of making my knee worse. I can rest - who knows how long - and then start getting ready for the other tournaments on hard court,’ said Jankovic.