Swisscom Challenge Preview:

Unfortunately, Jelena has lost in the early rounds of her last four tournaments but has improved in the rankings from last week. However, as she is seeded 5th in this tournament, she will not be receiving a bye which in my opinion is a good thing as she can receive some quality match practice before hopefully progressing to the later stages of the draw! So with all the support we are continuously giving her, lets hope that this can happen.

The Swisscom Challenge, like last week, is filled with top players and the seeds are as follows: (1) Jennifer Capriati; (2) Lindsay Davenport; (3) Justine Henin; (4) Amelie Mauresmo; (5) JELENA DOKIC; (6) Kim Clijsters; (7) Daniela Hantuchova; and (8) Anastasia Myskina.

Jelena is situated at the very top quarter which means that she will probably have to play Capriati in the QF which will not be an easy match. Her first round match has already been decided and she will be playing former French Open champion, Iva Majoli. Jelena holds a 3-2 head-to-head meetings against Majoli with Jelena being victorious in their last meeting in October last year, 7-6(3) 6-7(6) 6-3. If Jelena is playing well and has had some quality practicing before the match begins, she will hopefully be able to win in two sets but if it went to three, I would not at all be surprised. With any luck she will be able to get over her mental blocks that she seems to have been having as of late and use her talent to advance further as she does have to defend final points from last year where she lost to Lindsay Davenport in straight sets.

If successful, her second round opponent should not cause Jelena any trouble unless she is not playing well or still suffering those mental “mishaps”. She would either have to play the very talented Ai Sugiyama from Japan, who has upset the likes of Capriati this year and stretched Monica Seles at Wimbledon, or a qualifier who has not yet been decided. The only time Dokic has played Sugiyama was at the 1st round at the Olympic Games in which Jelena won convincingly 6-0 7-6 and as Sugiyama seems to be on a poor slump recently, Jelena should win the match, but again I would not be surprised if the match went to three sets.

Now, her QF opponent could be one of two players: Jennifer Capriati or Conchita Martinez. Martinez will hopefully be able to pass the up and coming player, Myriam Casanova, who recently defeated Henin in three sets at last week’s tournament. However, it is becoming a recent trend that lower ranked players can rarely continue their performances from recent events and hopefully Martinez will be able to pull through. Then she will have to pull up a major upset against Capriati, which is highly unlikely but could still happen. The last time that Jelena played Capriati she lost 7-6 (5) 4-0 retired in the SF of Montreal, although the last time they played a full match Jelena won 6-4 in the 3rd in the QF of San Diego. Dokic has also struggled in recent times against Martinez, although the last time they played, Jelena won 1-6 6-0 6-1. Nonetheless, her QF opponent will be a tough match, especially considering where the seeds were placed!

If successful in the QF rounds, I suspect that she will probably have to play Amelie Mauresmo of France, even though she has a great chance to fall to the new top-10 player, Daniela Hantuchova. I do not think Hantuchova will progress at all seeing as though she has now reached the final of the Filderstadt tournament and after she won Indian Wells, she did not continue her good performance but rather went out in the 1st round. This could very well happen again in this tournament! Mauresmo herself, however, could go out to Patty Schnyder, the home crowd favourite, in the second round as Schnyder has already beaten her this year at Charleston. Nevertheless, here are the following results from the last time Jelena has played her possible SF opponents:
- Mauresmo: 7-6 6-1-Dokic
- Hantuchova:  6-4 7-5-Hantuchova
- Schnyder:  6-1 7-5-Dokic
- Dementieva: 0-6 7-6 6-1

Finally, Jelena will probably have to play Lindsay Davenport or Kim Clijsters in the final, dependant upon which of these players is victorious in their QF match. The last time Jelena has played both players she has lost, but has come relatively close to beating Clijsters in their last meeting. A final appearance would be satisfactory here though as she really needs to defend her final points from last year and protect her ranking from slipping any further.

GOOD LUCK JELENA AND GET YOUR CONFIDENCE GOING!