Jankovic won Sunday's final 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to deny Sharapova a third title in the English Midlands, but the world number two was delighted that her injured shoulder stood up to the strain of having to play four matches in two days.

"I can only take good things away from the match. I've improved tremendously and I'm a much better grass court player than I was four matches ago," said Sharapova whose heavy weekend workload was caused by the rain which had played havoc with the schedule here.

"Coming into the week, my goal was to play five matches, so I couldn't be more pleased. I asked to play five matches and I did."

Jankovic, the world number four, was delighted to have wrapped up her fourth title of 2007.

"I just tried to stay positive out there and that's what helped me win the match," said the Serbian.

"I'm so happy this is my first title on grass. My fourth one this year, and now I have titles on three different surfaces - hard, grass and clay - so it's a good thing for me."

Both Jankovic and Sharapova had played their semi-finals earlier in the day.

The 22-year-old Serbian had defeated Italian eighth seed Mara Santangelo 6-1, 7-5, while Sharapova saw off French fifth seed Marion Bartoli 7-5, 6-0.

Bartoli had had to play her quarterfinal at the start of the day and came back from a set down to defeat Slovakian third seed Daniela Hantuchova 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.

Despite dropping the first set of the final, Jankovic finished the stronger of the two players, benefiting from having finished her semifinal two hours earlier than the Russian.