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Article written by Glyn James
Family Circle Cup,Welcome to Charleston, South Carolina: This week, Jelena travels to Charleston for the Tier I Family Circle Cup, which offers a not too shabby $1.3 million of prize money. After a bit of a slating for last week's 'not so informative' article, I've decided to pull my finger out and give as much general info on the tournament as possible. I hope some of you find this useful. The facility boasts 17 tennis courts: 14 clay and 3 hard courts. 13 of the courts have lighting. Of course, this week only the green clay courts shall be used for competitive matches. The Family Cup Magazine stadium has an impressive capacity of approximately 10,200. Last year, the site was voted as the 'Public Facility of the year', in the annual USTA awards for 'Outstanding Facilities.' The facility contains some useful extras such as a fitness center and a massage therapy service. If you're planning on going to Charleston, the site address is 161 Seven Farms Drive, Daniel Island (Charleston), South Carolina. The nearest airport would be the Charleston International Airport which is just 10 miles from the site. For information on ticket sales, directions, and a stadium map, go here - http://www.familycirclecup.com/content.asp?name=Site&ID=458&catID=513 The tournament director is Mike Finley, and can be contacted at mfinley@gjusa.com. The tournament is presented by L'Oréal. I shall reluctantly resist making any remarks about some players needing this type of beauty product. Other sponsors include Diadora, Porsche and State Farm Insurance, whilst Penn is the official ball supplier / sponsor. You can catch the action live on ESPN, and Eurosport will also provide live coverage from the Quarter Finals onwards. Shall we talk about Jelena? Jelena's current situation is, yet again, an extremely unsure one. After that performance in Miami, she was meant to gain confidence, and transform into the Jelena we all know and love, hitting winners left, right and center. Instead, what Jelena produced was another shock. We can't take anything for granted anymore, and despite the feeble excuse that Suarez is a decent clay court player, there is no explanation for Jelena's first round loss in Sarasota last week, other than she was too complacent, and this needs to stop if she has any real aspirations about staying in the top ten, let alone pushing for a top five place. We know that Jelena's game is undergoing a dramatic transformation under the nurturing of Heinz Gunthardt, but surely such a big change should be made over time. Jelena must play to her strengths, and if there needs to be a change (and there does) then the change needs to be gradual, and put in place around her strengths. There is no point adding changes to Jelena's game is destroying Jelena's morale. Jelena has been professional about the whole situation, explaining that the long term benefits will prove to be worth it, but there's only a certain amount of matches Jelena can lose before she starts to question these tactics. Confidence is vital in every sport, and perhaps even more essential in Jelena's case. She needs to start winning, and fast. This week, the pressure of defending ranking points is not bestowed upon Jelena. At last year's event, she fell at the first hurdle to Anna Pistolesi (then Anna Smashnova) with an embarrassing 6-1 6-3 scoreline. Jelena fans are either anxiously waiting for Jelena's game to click, or, in some sad cases, Jelena fans are upping and leaving until Jelena starts winning again. I won't express my feelings about these fans here, as I don't think it's fitting, but I will say that if we really want to see Jelena do well, then the best thing we can do is show her support and show our commitment. The Draw: Here's how the draw for the Family Circle Cup looks, (Jelena is the no. 6 seed)
A Tier I event is never going to provide an easy path to glory, but the path to the Quarter Finals isn't so hard. Even in her current form, Jelena will be the favourite for her 2rd match against Matevzic, but the 3rd match will be a real test for Jelena. Majoli is a very capable clay court player, and Jelena will need to be metally finely tuned to overcome this challenge. Ahead of that lies Serena Williams, and on that note, I shall leave my analysis there. You can see a deeper analysis from J.M. here - http://www.jelena-dokic.com/jelena/articles/200304/02.htm. Once again, another excellent article. Conclusion: Jelena's goal this week is surely the QF. It would take something very special to get past that stage. The fans, and the whole Jelena camp would no doubt be satisfied with a solid performance and two comfortable victories, and then a hardly fought match against Serena. Jelena certainly had Serena on the ropes for some part of their clash at last season's Championships in L.A., and I'm sure Jelena is dying to have another crack at the world no.1. Let's just hope she can get that far. Prediction: 1rd - BYE 2rd - Jelena def. Matevzic in straights 3rd - Jelena def. Majoli in three QF - Serena def. Jelena in straight Comments: glyn_james@jelena-dokic.com |
