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*** Jelena-Dokic.com  was visited by Jelena and her agent ***

Article by Glyn James

L.A. Championships

The 2002 season has just about finished, but to mark the end of a great season, there is to be one final showdown.  Jelena is one of the lucky few to play at the home depot championships.  After a very brief spell in Munich, the tournament has returned to the States, and will be played in the STAPLES areana in LA.  The tournament set up is unique.  Here, there are no qualifiers or wild cards.  Only those who have performed exceptionally throughout the year are invited, and, save from any injuries, it is only the top 16 ranked players who are invited.  The tournament has a whopping £3,000,000 on offer as prize money, and there is TV coverage of the event in 54 different countries.  For those of you in the states, ESPN and ESPN2 will show a great amount of coverage, and for us Europeans, Eurosport appears to be the best bet.  For those of you without access to ESPN or Eurosport, here's a list of channels with TV coverage:  Australia (Fox Sports), China (CCTV), India (TAJ Sports), Singapore (Super Sports), Thailand (UBC), Japan (Gaora), United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi Sports), Belgium (VRT), Yugoslavia (BK TV), and Canada (Sportsnet).

The tournament draw is made up of 16 players, eight seeded players, and eight unseeded players.  With the withdrawals of Martina Hingis and Amelie Mauresmo, there are places for Magdalena Maleeva and Elena Dementieva.  Should there be any other withdrawals, Alexandra Stevenson will be invited to play.  Here's how the draw looks -

1st  round 2nd round SF Final Winner
SWilliams(1)        
Smashnova
Myskina  
Dokic(8)
Capriati(3)    
Farina-Elia
Maleeva  
Hantuchova(7)
Clijsters(5)      
Rubin
Dementieva  
Henin(4)
Seles(6)    
Davenport
Schnyder  
VWilliams(2)

As expected, there is nothing easy here for Jelena.  The one positive thing to take from this draw is that she didn't draw Lindsay in the 1rd.  Anastasia Myskina isn't such a bad first round opponent though, and even with Jelena's recent dip in form, Jelena will fancy her chances.  Jelena has an impressive record against the Russians, and it's not as if Myskina has been firing on all cylindres lately either.  Jelena should advance to the QF stage.  Should she reach that stage, a fresh Serena Williams will be waiting to eat up our girl.  It's extremely difficult to see anyone stopping Serena this week, and an out of form Dokic is unlikely to prove to be much competition for the #1 ranked player in the world.  However, Jelena likes being the underdog, and has been known to cause a few upsets in the past.  In the unlikely event of Jelena reaching the SF, she will most likely come up against Daniela Hantuchova, unless Jeniffer Capriati can find her game.  A Jelena that is able to beat Serena Williams shouldn't have too much difficulty overcoming either of these players, but the chances of her even reaching this stage are slim.  The other half of the draw sees a possible 'battle of the Belgians' in the QF.  While Justine Henin will be expected to defeat Elena Dementieva, Kim Clijsters will have a real job on her hands when she comes up against the powerful Chanda Rubin.  Another interesting QF match up would be Lindsay Davenport against Venus Williams.  Should Lindsay stay injury free, she should be able to see just how close she is to her best when she comes up against the formidable Venus.  Venus will no doubt be looking to bounce back to form after her suprising loss to Magdalena Maleeva at the Kremlin Cup jusr a few weeks ago.

There isn't much expectancy at all this week, with only the most optimistic of us believing that Jelena can surpass the QF.  The only real positive to take from the draw is that Serena hasn't played any competitive tennis in a while, and she may be a little rusty.  Also, let's not forget about Anastasia Myskina.  Jelena's first round opponent will most likely be a bit of a handful, and a victory is far from certain. 

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PREDICTION -

1rd Jelena def. Myskina in two

QF Serena def. Jelena in two

SF  Serena def. Hantuchova in two

F    Serena def. Davenport in two

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