Article written by Todd Spiker

JELENA-DOKIC.com - December 2002


**JELENA CORNER**
 

   Well, it's that time again.  The 2003 season is less than a week away... for most everyone else, but not Jelena. She won't kick off things until she heads for Tokyo at the end of January.  Until then, hopeful holiday wishes, radiant resolutions and fatuous forecasts will have to be the order of the day.  Thus, I present "49 Short Thoughts About Jelena Dokic" that might make the proceeding eleven months more pleasurable than the last:


RESOLUTION: To make this January's Australian Open the last to take place without her.

HOLIDAY WISH: That Jelena kicks off her 2003 Tier I Redemption Tour in Tokyo with more success than she did last year, when she lost her opening match to Anne Kremer and set a bad tone for 2002 (she went 8-9 in Tier I's, after being 20-7 in 2001).

FACT: When play begins in Melbourne, it will have been 729 days since Jelena last played there.  Hopefully, the absence will end at 1092 days on January 12, 2004.

PREDICTION:  Jelena, despite her reluctance to return to her former home country, will one day find a special place in her heart for the land down under when she wins the Oz title.

 

RESOLUTION: To make Anne Kremer realize that her easy 3-0 record against her last year was a byproduct of extenuating circumstances.

HOLIDAY WISH: That Chanda Rubin (2-0, and 25-9 in games vs. Jelena in 2002) gets to see how the "real" Jelena can play when she isn't exhausted, ill or ready to "semi-tank."

FACT: Jelena is 20-4 vs. the growing horde of Russian women since the Sydney Olympics.  4-2 against #11 Anastasia Myskina, and 5-0 against #19 Elena Dementieva -- the two highest-ranked of the bunch.

PREDICTION: Jelena will go 3-4 in singles finals in 2003, 1-3 against Top 4 players in the five matches.

 

RESOLUTION: To not continue to play doubles in events when she's too tired/hurt to even play singles at her desired high level.

HOLIDAY WISH: That when Jelena does play doubles, she does so with Nadia Petrova as often as humanly (Jelena-ly?) possible.

FACT: Jelena and her doubles partners have won 5 of their last 6 SF matches.

PREDICTION: Jelena will win four doubles titles in 2003, three of them with Petrova.

 

RESOLUTION: To stand by her vow to cut back her tournament schedule to 20-22 events... and to proceed with a hard-earned regard for caution.

HOLIDAY WISH: That Jelena gets a little rest for the weary, so she can avoid becoming one of them come October.

FACT: Jelena actually played fewer games in singles in 2002 (1646) than in 2001 (1724), but 5 of her 27 defeats came because she was either physically unable to finish a match or not able to play it at all.

PREDICTION: Jelena will cut down her number of tournaments from the 29 she played in 2002, but she'll still play more often than any other woman in the Top 10.

 

RESOLUTION: To finally put in the past the notion that her serve is going to be a liability in every big match she plays.

HOLIDAY WISH: Variety, variety, variety.  And a workable Plan B on gamedays.

FACT: Jelena is still the third youngest woman in the Top 20, just two months older than Kim Clijsters and two weeks the senior of Daniela Hantuchova.

PREDICTION: As 2001's late year surge resulted in the hellish series of points defenses that led to a slip in the rankings, Jelena's lack of great results this past fall will lead to a corresponding ranking rise late in 2003.

 

RESOLUTION: To make sure that Bernoldi isn't TOO much of a distraction.

HOLIDAY WISH: That Damir would just let Jelena grow up.

FEAR: He won't... at least not without an ugly, public fight.

PREDICTION: Damir won't be silent, and neither will Jelena.  But she'll pick her spots to speak out a little more wisely.  In other words, no more politics and a realization that it's best to keep squabbles with tournament organizers behind closed doors (no matter how valid her complaints might be) so she doesn't come off as a spoiled tennis brat.

 

RESOLUTION: To compile a better record vs. Top 10 (4-8 and a walkover loss, compared to 3-16 in 2001) and Top 20 (9-13 and the walkover) competition than she did in 2002.

HOLIDAY WISH: That Jelena finally gets a pro circuit victory over "Wonder Girl" Hantuchova, if for no other reason than to cause the WTA marketing division to have sleepless nights wondering if they've put their money and support behind the wrong lady.

FEAR: Lindsay Davenport is going to retire before Jelena ever beats her.

PREDICTION: Jelena won't defeat a Williams in 2003, but she will get a world #1 scalp to put over her mantle... that of Kim Clijsters' sometime in late September/early October.

 

RESOLUTION: To win the opening set of one of her matches against a Williams or Davenport.  Combining her pro and junior results, in maybe her most impressive statistic, she's 193-14 in matches when she claims the 1st set.

HOLIDAY WISH: That Jelena avoids the annual grand slam crash that's now occurred for three straight years, first with the 2000 Oz 1r upset loss to Rita Kuti Kis, then the 2001 RG 3r defeat by Petra Mandula and last year's US Open 2r loss to Elena Bovina.

FACT: Jelena's US Open loss to then-#61 Bovina was her only defeat in 31 completed matches against players ranked #40 or below.

PREDICTION: Jelena will complete her third straight Top 10 year in singles as well as prize money, coming in between #5-#7 in both.

 

RESOLUTION: To quickly end the string of four consecutive losses in singles SF.  Before the slump, she'd been on a 13-2 tear.

HOLIDAY WISH: That the Wimbledon smile returns.  It was pretty much M.I.A. at SW19 last summer.

FACT: Jelena's loss to Hantuchova in the 4r was the first time at Wimbledon that she'd lost to a player ranked below her at the time.  Jelena was #7, Hantuchova #12.

PREDICTION: A "new" Jelena will foster her deepest All England Club run since her 2000 SF.