Nobody can light up a room quite like Jelena Jankovic. All she has to do is smile.

When bad light threatened to spoil the DFS Classic final at Edgbaston Priory yesterday, Jankovic smiled and everything was fine.

Usually it is Maria Sharapova's hair or Daniela Hantuchova's legs or Maria Kirilenko's face that demands recognition. This year, even though the rain did its best to attract attention with a three-day assault on our sanity, it was Jankovic's teeth that stole the show.

They were ubiquitous, especially after she won the dramatic, if error-strewn final 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

"Thank you for letting me win this time," Jankovic said to Sharapova.

"Jelena played well when it mattered and that is why she has a cheque for $28,000 and I have a cheque for $14,000," said Sharapova. This time even she smiled.

But Jankovic does it more naturally. Early in the match, when it looked as though Sharapova was going to win without breaking sweat, Jankovic provided a moment of charm that endeared her to the crowd.

Sharapova had played the perfect backhand top-spin lob and Jankovic, struggling to retrieve the shot, began laughing in mid-air as she realised that the point was going to be lost.

Amid the gloom of a day that evoked images of December, all you could see was Jankovic's unsullied teeth.

But whichever one wants to look at this tournament, it was, alas, a wretched affair.

The schedule had been pushed so far out of sync that we were left with the real possibility that Marion Bartoli could play three matches on the final day.

Hantuchova did not play at all on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - and she had the frown to prove it. Even her legs, perfect and endless, looked forlorn.

And poor old Sharapova crammed four matches into the final two days, which is hardly what her injured right shoulder needed.

As for the doubles event, there were so many incomplete ties and walkovers that it was more of a succession of exhibition matches than a serious tournament.

Worse still, when Mara Santangelo and Na Li played their quarter final on court No 4 on Saturday, the players could barely concentrate because of the noise made by the Pavarotti impersonater in a nearby marquee.

From 3.30pm on the Wednesday to the morning of the final yesterday, play was either washed out altogether or constantly interrupted. There was even a danger that the Edgbaston Priory clubhouse would be flooded.

The delays gave Sharapova a chance to read a romantic novel from the comfort of her suite in the Hyatt Hotel in Birmingham city centre. The slightly less rich among the tennis professionals - ie, most of them - sat around in front of the television, doing their best to avoid eye contact with each other.

It is a unique aspect of a women's tournament that the participants rarely talk to each other but always seem to be sharing a bowl of salad with a male coach. And the coaches usually look the same: sun-tanned, half-concealed by expensive sunglasses, no sign of impending baldness, and self-obsessed.

More often than not, they look more self-assured than the very players who employ them.

Sharapova's coach, Yuri Sharapov (her father), does not conform to the stereotype because he is older, looks as if he is enjoying himself, and does not look as natural in sunglasses.

Jankovic is also coached by her father (Veselin) but he is not the most conspicuous of men on the women's tour. Still, whatever he does, he seems happy to let his daughter enjoy a semblance of independence.

Jankovic was even seen alone (sometimes talking in Serbo-Croat on her mobile phone), which, for the third-best player in the world, was refreshing.

Sharapova, by contrast, is usually surrounded by bodyguards and is less accessible. She is the No 2 player in the world.

The computer rankings suggest that the difference in talent between Sharapova and Jankovic is marginal, if, indeed, there is any difference at all. But Sharapova is blonde and has won Wimbledon. This logically makes her more famous and more of a mystery.

But Jankovic ostensibly has the better personality and has yet to show any signs the combination of fame and wealth has gone to her head. The proof of that came when she fulfilled my request for an interview.

She had just lost a match in the French Open but you would never have guessed. She giggled away in much the same way as she did after she defeated Sharapova here yesterday.

Whether she is smiling in English or in SerboCroat, she has a way of making even torrential rain feel like sunshine.