Article by Glyn James

Jelena Dokic has crashed out of this year's Generali Ladies Linz after a disappointing match with American Chanda Rubin.  It ended 5-7 2-6 and a downcast Dokic left the scene immediately.

    The match started brightly for the young Yugoslav when she took the first game, serving to love.  Some seriously exquisite ground strokes gave a lot of hope.  Things bettered when Jelena took the next game, breaking Rubin.  Again, Jelena's heavy ground strokes had Rubin moving all around the court, and it seemed as though Jelena had a magnet on her which was pulling Rubin's shots harmlessly toward her.  However, as we all know, the service game immediately after a break can be tricky, and it was no exception.  Jelena became complacent immediately after taking this early lead, and two double faults gifted Chanda a break-back.  Chanda had no problems holding serve this time, and it wasn't long before Jelena found herself 4-2 behind.  Jelena upped the tempo a little and actually started coming into the net a little.  She hit some delicately beautiful volleys and put together a string of three consecutive games to take a 5-4 lead.  The see-saw was to tilt once more though.  Rubin seemed to play a little better, but it was Jelena's unforced errors which put her in trouble.  Rubin played some safe tennis, and grabbed her chances with both hands as she took the first set 7-5.

    Rubin opened the second set in good stead by breaking Jelena's serve, but a still fully focused Dokic immediately broke back in the following game, and then held serve to take a 2-1 lead in the second.  Once again though, the see-saw was working it's magic and allowed Rubin to take the following two games and take a 3-2 lead.  From here on in, Jelena's concentration certainly seemed to drop a substantial amount, but she still wasn't playing too badly.  She hit some fantastic shots, and when she was staying focused, Rubin simply looked outclassed, but as so often is the case with Jelena, she played fantastically throughout the point, and then a lapse of concentration led her to make some unforgiving mistakes when it came to hitting the final shot.  Rubin kept up her consistent tennis with some deep and pretty heavy shots, and in the end, it proved enough as she ran up a 6-2 lead to take the second set and the match.

    The important thing to stress here is that Jelena did not play bad tennis.  There was certainly some fine moments of inspiration.  The volleys Jelena played today were second to none in the WTA (except maybe Lisa Raymond), and if she can keep working on this aspect of her game then she will certainly be a contender for the Wimbledon crown next year.  As for the short term.  Today's loss and Hantuchova's win will see Hantuchova raising above Jelena in the rankings.  Jelena's drop will mean a tough draw next week at L.A., but for once, I can gladly say that Jelena can take a lot of positives from today's match, but she does need some more victories to boost her confidence.  The season has been a long one indeed for Jelena, but I have no doubt that she will return next year with the hunger and eagerness that has earned her her current rank.