Top ladies back on track

Eurosport's Simon Reed believes that the world's best women are finally getting back on track after a rocky start to the season.

It's already been a terrific week for women's tennis in Stuttgart, because for the first time in what seems like an age the best women players are starting to play at their best.

It is still just the early signs of resurgence we are seeing after what has been a difficult start to 2009 for many of the top players - but the signs are encouraging nonetheless.

And top of the list is Jelena Jankovic, despite her exit from the event on Friday at the hands of Flavia Pennetta.

That's what I mean by early signs: Jankovic has been in outstanding form in this tournament so far, but you don't turn around six disappointing months overnight, and that's what we saw against Pennetta.

The fact remains that the hopes for Jankovic this year have been transformed. Her match against Sabine Lisicki was the best clay match I've seen so far this year, and while Lisicki didn't disappoint - far from it - it was Jankovic's superb tennis which really shone through.

It's something which I have to admit took me by surprise. The Serbian has looked a shadow of her 2008 self this year, but seems to be getting her confidence back match by match. She's made a few technical tweaks, and her serve in particular looks much more solid now.

In my mind Lisicki confirmed that she will push on into the very top tier of the game - and if she and Jankovic avoid each other in the draw at Roland Garros, I wouldn't be surprised to see them contesting the final.

But Jankovic isn't the only one who's looking in impressive form. Elena Dementieva has been producing tennis that's as good as I've ever seen from her, Dinara Safina seems to be getting over the mental block which was holding her back, and Svetlana Kuznetsova is starting to play the proper tennis that we all know she's capable of.

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Another player who is really starting to shine again is Novak Djokovic. He looked very out of sorts earlier this year, but really seems to be getting back to his best and has been very impressive in Rome this week.

It's almost impossible to see anyone beating Rafa Nadal over five sets on clay at the French Open, but I reckon that there are two players out there who might be able to pull it off - and Djokovic is one of them.

The other one? Fernando Verdasco.

He might have been knocked out by Nadal in Rome, and that troublesome left leg is clearly an issue for him; but he showed on the Italian clay that he has the game to handle Nadal when he's firing on all cylinders.

And even more importantly he doesn't seem to be fazed by the idea of facing the world number one on his favourite surface - and that alone might just give him half a chance of pulling off what would be a huge upset.