Article written by Nikola Radovic

Shocking Exit


After yesterday's easy match win against Kirsten Flipkens and Elke Clijsters of Belgium in the quarter finals round of the Antwerp tournament, Jelena Dokic and Daja Bedanova went on the court today to play against Japanese tennis player Ai Sugiyama and Kim Clijsters of Belgium.

A very difficult match, a very difficult and interesting opponents. One of them was 27 years old Japanese tennis player Ai Sugiyama, ex No.1 in doubles who has won more then 20 doubles title. Her last doubles title came in Sydney earlier this year where she was teamed up with her new doubles partner Kim Clijsters. The other one, Kim Clijsters is for sure one of new great doubles partner, owner of 5 doubles titles and a very useful doubles partner.  With these kind of opponents, with a good mixture of experience, skills and power, it was very hard to predict the score. It was for sure a big mental test for a young team of Dokic and Bedanova, and somehow they failed to show what they are made of. They just didn't show all they can do. One of the reasons was a very solid and smart game plan from Sugiyama and Clijsters, and the other reason was some of the worst doubles game that has been seen from Dokic and Bedanova for a long time.

Jelena and Daja tried to make some changes in their game plan. They tried to go for their shots more often. But usually, Sugiyama and Klijsters would place their balls really deep, they had a very good net coverage and a lots of nice placed volleys with a good baseline hitting. The scales continued to tip in Sugiyama and Klijster's favor. There was no trademark sharp shots from Jelena nor fast running from Daja at all. Some of very easy to hit winners from both sides became an unforced errors, which made Jelena and Daja even more inpatient.  Jelena and Daja's game just went down. They made a lot of errors and it always makes it tough to win the match with that kind of performance. More when your opponents are Sugiyama and Clijsters. There was nothing Jelena and Daja could do about it. Sometimes it can turn around a little bit, to make things more interesting, but that wasn't the case this afternoon.  Sugiyama and Clijsters were a hundred percents with their shots, they weren't missing their shots that much as Jelena and Daja were.
But even so, it's a great experience for Jelena and Daja. They just have to learn from it and move on.  Ai Sugiyama and Kim Clijsters defeated Jelena Dokic and Daja Bedanova 6-2, 6-0.