A jubilant Kim Clijsters wowed Sydney fans one last time with a courageous comeback win over in-form Serb Jelena Jankovic in the final of the Medibank International.

Clijsters, the 23-year-old former fiancee of Lleyton Hewitt who plans to retire at season's end to start a family with US basketballer Brian Lynch, had to save a match point in the second set before ending Jankovic's unbeaten start to 2007 with an epic 4-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 triumph.

The victory completed a perfect Australian Open build-up for the popular Belgian, who also won last week's exhibition event in Hong Kong with success over top seed Maria Sharapova in the final.

Clijsters and Sharapova share Open favouritism in the absence of world No.1 Justine Henin-Hardenne, but Jankovic has also surged into consideration on the back of a similarly impressive lead-up to the season's first grand slam starting in Melbourne on Monday.

Jankovic reigned in Auckland last week and it took all of Clijsters' amazing athleticism and shotmaking to snap the 21-year-old's nine-match winning streak.

Jankovic came out firing, breaking the defending champion in the opening game with a scorching backhand pass before consolidating to establish a 2-0 lead.

Clijsters broke back in the fourth game to get back on level terms only to net a tentative forehand to had Jankovic another break in the ninth game.

Another Clijsters forehand error, this time when the third seed flayed a return long, handed Jankovic the first set in 42 minutes.

Clijsters double-faulted to gift Jankovic another break for a 3-2 advantage in the second set and then held for 4-2.

The defending champion's fightback began when she broke Jankovic to level at 4-4 before her desperate attempt at a drop shot on break point the following game had the Serbian serving for the match.

This time Jankovic faltered, missing an easy backhand with the court wide open when a winner would have earned her two match points.

Jankovic had to settle for one opportunity but missed her big chance when Clijsters produced a deft drop volley winner and then broke back for 5-5.

The Serb broke Clijsters for a third time in the set only to drop her own serve again when trying once more to close out the match.

Three double-faults in the tiebreak marked the beginning of the end for Jankovic.

As Clijsters grew in confidence, Jankovic threatened to completely unravel, falling behind 4-0 in the deciding set.

But the world No.12 rallied to get back to 4-3 before Clijsters steadied to claim her 34th career title after two hours and 28 minutes with her sixth win from as many clashes with Jankovic.

Despite her loss, Jankovic will climb to a career-high No.11 in the world on Monday following her defeats of former No.1s Martina Hingis and defending Australian Open champion Amelie Mauresmo this week.

Clijsters will remain at No.5.

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