Article written by Todd Spiker

JELENA-DOKIC.com - February 28, 2003

 

*Scottsdale (#4 seed) Breakdown*
2353...Feb.24 points
1......1r bye
0......2r: Shaughnessy (#27) - 4-6,2-6
1......EVENT TOTAL

2353...March 3 ranking points (#9)
136....March 3 Points Race total



--RAINING ARIZONA--

   So, was Scottsdale worth it?  Need the question even be asked?
   As it turns out, Jelena's little side trip to Arizona was a predictably rainy waste of time for the Tour's frequent flyer miles race leader.  In fact, deciding to show up there might just have been her most needless decision since that fateful choice of playing immediately after her Paris injury at the start of last season.  Only this time there IS a little good news -- she's not hurting... well, not physically.
   At least she was able to satiate her apparent burning desire to play this week, albeit in possibly the wrong venue.  Most players would have extended their idle time to include a second week to prepare for the two Tier I's in March.  But not Jelena, she takes out her frustration by playing, and then playing some more and then, in a pinch, playing a little bit more.
   In this mindset, although it was a clay event, it might have been a better idea to go to Acapulco rather than Scottsdale.  Jelena would have been the #1 seed in a lesser field, with a much better chance of getting the multiple matches she so obviously craves at the moment.  Scottsdale gave her nothing of the kind, and was foreseen here earlier this week as simply a setup for further disappointment.  Unfortunately, that belief proved true in the end.
   Standing at 2-4 so far in 2003, the reasons for this slow start can't be shouldered by the injuries that produced the 5-5 beginning of 2002.  This time it's poor play that's the culprit, plain and simple.  Factor in the transitionary period necessary as she begins her coach-player relationship with Heinz Gunthardt, and you get the extension of Jelena's current trip down the Road to Nowhere.
   It's a small measure of relief that three of Jelena's four early losses have now come to players who have already won singles titles this year (and the fourth, to Ai Sugiyama, was further footnoted by the interesting fact that the Japanese vet knocked off Lindsay Davenport in Scottsdale).  The facts don't lessen the effect of the losses, or the reality that Jelena's game is totally out of sorts at the moment.  Just take a look at the updated Slide Chart (it never lies):


 

--SQUARE ONE--

   At least with her health on her side, Jelena should be able to fashion a plan to get out of her current predicament.  It's not so much if, but when, she'll be able to successfully pull herself out of the pit she finds herself in that is the big question.


**LONGEST CAREER LOSING STREAKS**
4...Sept/Oct 02 - Tokyo/Leip/Mosc/Fild
3...Aug/Sept 99 - Toronto/US/Tokyo
3...July/Aug 00 - Wimb/Mont/N.Haven
3...July/Aug 01 - Wimb/Vienna/Knokke-H
3...CURRENT - Paris/Antwerp/Scottsdale


   As March 2003 arrives, Jelena is still playing catchup.  It's the continuing late stages of the chain reaction that began when she played far too much as 2002 closed, precipitating (or is it providing a legitimate excuse for?) her late start to this season, and now further complicated by a new coach and mounting frustration with this string of bad results.  She's still paying for past mistakes.  After running at full speed toward a brick wall for so long, she finally hit it head-first a while back.  Recovery isn't an overnight prodecure.
   In fact, we're probably still a month away from seeing any signs of real rejuvenation.  By then, the Tier I's will have passed and the claycourt season will be upon us.  It can't get here soon enough, as Jelena will likely leave this early hardcourt circuit without the Top 10 ranking that's become a matter-of-fact possession since October 2001.