Top Seeds Henin, Jankovic Meet for Toronto Title

It will be a battle between the tournament’s Top 2 seeds for both the singles and doubles titles as Championship Sunday takes place at the $1,340,000 Rogers Cup presented by American Express, held at the Rexall Centre in Toronto, Canada.

For the singles honors it will be a battle between No.1 seed Justine Henin and No.2 seed Jelena Jankovic. Henin contests her third final at this event, having won the title in 2003 (beating Lina Krasnoroutskaya in the final) and finishing runner-up in 2005 (to Kim Clijsters); prior to this year, Jankovic had never even made it to the quarterfinals at this Tier I tournament.

Henin leads the head-to-head series 6-0, but their matches have been, for the most part, closely-contested. Their first five meetings went to three sets, with two -- their 2006 US Open semifinal and 2007 Berlin quarterfinal -- being on Jankovic’s racquet. In the former, Jankovic led 64 42 and had a point for 5-2 in the second set; in the latter, she was up 4-0 in the third set. Their most recent encounter, a semifinal at Roland Garros just a few months ago, was a 63 62 win for Henin.

Justine Henin comes into her 51st Tour singles final with a 34-16 record (9-4 at Tier Is); she is one of three active players to have reached 50 or more Tour singles finals, after Martina Hingis (43-25) and Venus Williams (35-20).

Henin is currently tied for second place in total Tier I singles titles among active players; Hingis leads the stat with 17 total, while Henin and Serena Williams each own eight; Amélie Mauresmo and Venus Williams have six each.

Jelena Jankovic comes into her 12th Tour singles final with a 5-6 record (2-0 at Tier Is). Jankovic is currently the leader in Tour singles matches won this year with 62 (nobody else has even crossed 50); since going 1-10 to start 2006, she has a 106-32 record (44-17 in the second half of 2006 and 62-15 this year).

This is the seventh time in 42 Tour events this year that the Top 2 seeds play for the singles title; the No.1 seed has gone 4-2 in the first six instances of this, and Henin has won three of those finals as the No.1 seed. This is the first time that the Top 2 seeds have made their way into the final at this tournament since 1999, when a No.1-seeded Hingis beat a No.2-seeded, four-time defending champion Monica Seles in straight sets, 64 64. (WTA)