Article by Nikola Radovic

Dokic/Petrova reaches final at Generali Open

Jelena Dokic and her doubles partner Nadia Petrova blew through their semifinal match against young Russian tennis player Lina Krasnoroutskaya and 26 years old Russian Tatiana Panova, coming out on top 7-5, 6-0.

The match didn't start that well for Jelena and her doubles partner Nadia. On the other side of the net, they had a very tricky opponents. One of them was Tatiana Panova, an experienced tennis player whose last important doubles result came in Auckland at the beginning of this year where she, teamed up with T. Poutchek failed to make it to the final. The other one was young Russian Lina Krasnoroutskaya who was a last year's runner-up at Kremlin Cup, where she and her ex-doubles partner Elena Dementieva were defeated by Anna Kournikova and Martina Hingis in straight sets.

At the beginning of the match, Jelena and Nadia made a lot errors, they rushed so many shots, but somehow they found their momentum after few good passing shots. Although Jelena and Nadia were 2-4 down in the first set, they didn't give up. With rocket-like forehands and precisely placed passing shots, Jelena and Nadia held serve and broke back to level the score in the first set to 4 all.

Jelena was able to garner some well-earned points, and also beautifully covered the net on Petrova's low hit shots. Even Tatiana Panova and Lina Krasnoroutskaya had the determination to win the set, they just couldn't adjust themselves to the force of Jelena's and Nadia's strokes.

It was their mental toughness that gave them first set victory. Mixing up their shots, along with plenty of slice and top spin, Jelena and Nadia won last 2 games of the first set.

The second set saw a changed Dokic/ Petrova team. The team really looked more alive than ever in the second set. Even when Tatiana and Lina had their chances, which to tell the truth weren't many, Jelena and Nadia were able to turn their opponent's would be winners into their own points.

Tatiana and Lina weren't able to keep their errors down. They made a lot of errors and it always makes it tough to win the match with that kind of performance. Their game just went down, and there was nothing they could do to bring it back up.

On the other side, Jelena and Nadia were able to do everything they wanted to do on the court.
Jelena Dokic and Nadia Petrova defeated Lina Krasnoroutskaya and Tatiana Panova 7-5, 6-0.