Article by Gerhard Grundhammer

Californian Girl Alexandra Stevenson is Jelenas 2nd round opponent at
Zürich, and though they have met three times before, it had  never been at such early stages of a tournament. The first time Jelena met the 1.85 meters tall girl was at Wimbledon 1999, and Alexandra stopped Jelenas brilliant run there, beating Jelena in three sets. Jelena had to wait then over 2 years to take revanche and it happened last autumm at Linz where Jelena won 6-3 and 7-5. Their last meeting which put Jelenas record vs. Alexandra 2-1 up took place at Montreal where Jelena won 1-6, 7-5 and 6-1.

Reaching the semis at Wimbledon 1999, was also the by far biggest success for the current no34 of the world, at Grand Slams, and probably in her entire career as tennis-professional, because if you look at her statistics for any WTA-titles you find the number 0.

Earlier this year she played the best tennis of her career, which started, as Jelenas, in 1999. She reached the only final she ever reached at Memphis, had decent results at Scottsdale, Indian Wells and Key Biscane, beat Coetzer in round 2 of the Pan Pacific Open, though she had to play 3 qualifying rounds there, and only lost to Seles in round 3, and had the same result at Sydney, where she had to play 3 qualifiying rounds, too, and beat Tulyaganova and Capriati only to loose to Shaughnessy in round 3.

All that happened from january to march 2002, but after that her results went rather poor, highlighted by her 6-0 and 6-1 loss to Anna Kournikova at her home town San Diego. Good tournaments became rare for the 1.85 meters tall american, but last week at Filderstadt she surprised everyone as she beat Meghannn Shaughnessy and Jennifer Capriati (again!) after winning three qualifying rounds! She once showed again that she is able to beat almost everyone on a good day.

Last I found a funny note about her: Bobby Riggs, a former Wimbledon Champ who used to coach her at early stages of her career, used to entice Stevenson by putting $100 bills under cones on the court......

For those who are interested what Jelena said after the loss to Stevenson at Wimbledon 1999, though it happened more than 3 years ago, they can find her post-match interview at:
http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/dhbvg87/Interviews/990702.htm Jelenas fan-site from Japan