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Tennis foes in off-court feud

Tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Jelena Jankovic have been locked in a bitter rivalry as fierce off-court as it is on.

The competitive pair have been rivals since they trained as young girls at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida.

A tennis source told us, “Jelena and her manager mother, Snezana, were hostile to Maria when they were training together in Florida. They are both fiercely competitive. They respect each other as players, but there is no love lost between them.”

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Russian Sharapova, 24, currently ranked fourth, arrived in the US at age 7, and Jankovic, 26, ranked 12th, arrived at Bollettieri at 12.

Sharapova’s agent, Max Eisenbud, told us, “It’s a competitive thing. They’ve played against each other since they were [young]. They’re competitive. No, they don’t socialize, but Maria doesn’t really socialize with any of the girls on the tour. She socializes in different circles.” But he said talk of an ongoing feud between them was “not right.” Jankovic’s rep added, “They are friendly and have known each other for a long time. There are no problems.”

Tennisreporters.net’s Matthew Cronin recently reported that, “Sharapova doesn’t like how Jankovic frequently makes excuses when she loses and doesn’t give enough credit to her foes. Perhaps that traces back to Bollettieri’s, when it’s possible that the older Jankovic … wouldn’t give the Russian credit for victories.” He quotes Jankovic, “We always wanted to be better than one another … We were fighting, competing against each other, we were doing anything to win. We were girls at a young age that had rivalries.”

In 2007, Jankovic infuriated her competitor by saying she didn’t deserve to be ranked No. 2 in the world. Sharapova fired back, “I’m ranked No. 2 and she [Jankovic] is ranked No. 3, and that’s based on criteria that has been in place for years.” Sharapova had kinder words before she beat Jankovic at Cincinnati this month: “We had many battles … She’s a great player.”