ONE OF the less shocking sights in the women's draw at Wimbledon this year was second seed Jelena Jankovic having treatment in the middle of yesterday's third round 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over 17-year-old Dane Caroline Wozniacki.

Jankovic seems to be perennially injured and is therefore no stranger to strapping, tape and liniment so, if anything, it was surprising that she got to the latter stages of the second set yesterday without having had any of them applied.

It didn't last. She had jarred her knee while slipping in pursuit of the ball in the first set and gradually it had begun to ache, thus necessitating her customary call for the trainer. "I made a really strange move and as play went longer and longer I started to have some pain in my knee," said Jankovic.

"I'll receive some treatment but hopefully I'll be fine for my next match. The physio said I had probably sprained it."

For the sake of the women's event, it is to be hoped that Jankovic recovers, though a doubt must now be cast over her ability to play any meaningful part in the tournament.

As much as upsets like the defeats to Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic provide short-term gratification for those who relish a bit of giant-killing, grand slams need to have to odd giant around in the latter stages to balance out all the relatively new faces.

Jankovic - partly through her association with last year's mixed doubles partner Jamie Murray and partly through her own engaging, media-friendly personality - has become something of a favourite at Wimbledon and it would hard a pick a more popular potential champion.

Should she disappear, then the winner will come from the rag-tag bunch of journeywomen, veterans, youngsters and Williams sisters who now populate the draw.

Jankovic eventually dispensed with the tape after deciding that it restricted her movement too much, which is hardly surprising given that it covered most of her leg and seemed to be applied with such zealousness that it resembled a plaster cast by the time the physio Nadine Waeghe had finished wrapping her up.

Jankovic revealed after the match that she asked for the tape to be removed against Waeghe's advice, which at least suggests the knee cannot have been too painful. "The physio really was not happy about that but I have to do what I have to do to win a match," said Jankovic.

The real disappointment of her injury is that, for once, she had come into a grand slam fresh and without having played herself into exhaustion. After sustaining an arm injury at Roland Garros, she opted to miss her customary Wimbledon warm-up stop in Birmingham and so came to the Championships short on match practice but long on rest.

Many of the ailments and aches she has suffered in the last two seasons were wear-and-tear probl ems caused by overplaying. Others, like the breathing problems which required sinus surgery at the end of last year and yesterday's jarring of the knee, must simply be put down to bad luck. Either way her tendency to physical frailty remains the largest single reason why Jankovic has got to the semi-finals of grand slams but no further.

Jankovic's injury distracted from a bravura performance from Wozniacki, who won the Wimbledon junior title two years ago and has secured a place in the top ten this year with the sort of aggressive, nerveless tennis she played in the first set yesterday.

Her backhand and serve are both excellent weapons, and with a little more experience and more consistency on the forehand side she will increasingly become a force at grand slams in the future, particularly those on faster surfaces.

Wozniacki is an engaging, cheerful personality who is already a big star in her native Denmark on the back on being the first Danish woman ever to break into the top 20. If her celebrity spreads beyond her home country and into the wider world then that can only be a good thing for the sport.

There is every chance that Wimbledon will see its third all-Williams final this year, for Venus beat Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-1, 7-5 yesterday and Serena is in action tomorrow. Neither looks likely to be beaten easily.