Article written by J.M.

Jelena is back! There is no question about it! Today she proved that she is still a fighter when she rallied from one set down to defeat her old Russian nemesis, Elena Dementieva of Russia, winning the match 4-6 6-4 7-5. Last week was pretty disappointing when Dokic failed to defend her title at Sarasota, but this has not seemed to bother her at all because she has made consecutive quarterfinals at Tier 1 events (Miami and Charleston) over the past month or so! These tournaments provide great chances for players to improve their rankings and the fact that Jelena fell out of the top 10 last week may have provided her with the right motivation as she headed into Charleston. She will now probably move back into the top 10 next week as she has already defended an early round loss here from last year, and also because Anastasia Myskina (currently ranked 10^th) fell to Mary Pierce earlier today. Her next opponent, however, will prove for an interesting match in world number 1, Serena Williams.

Paths to the Quarterfinals:

Dokic:

2^nd round: Dokic d. Matevzik 6-1 6-4

3^rd round: Dokic d. Dementieva 4-6 6-4 7-5

Williams:

2^nd round: Williams d. Randriantefy 6-3 6-0

3^rd round: Williams d. Martinez 6-2 6-2

Both players have been playing extremely well on the clay in the earlier rounds, particularly Serena who defeated the clay court specialist and former French Open Finalist, Conchita Martinez of Spain. Martinez hits the ball with a lot of spin and drop shots so Serena must be really fit at the moment to come up with a scoreline like that against her Spanish opponent. This, however, should not really bother Jelena’s game as Dokic has shown that she is fitter than ever this year, despite some early round losses at the beginning of the year.

What many people are finding interesting at Charleston is the doubles pairing of Jelena and Daniela Hantuchova. They have played each other a couple of times, with Hantuchova coming up trumps on all of their meetings in tight scorelines, and have now probably paired with each other to adjust to the clay court season more effectively and to determine if they can be the next Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs of doubles. Unfortunately they lost today to the wildcard pairing of Ashley Harkelroad and Mashona Washington.

Clay Slam?

When Serena was on her way to accomplishing an amazing feat by winning all four grand slams known as the Serena Slam, most people thought that it could not be achieved, especially by the Williams Sisters who were simply pathetic when it came to clay a few years ago. However, both players have cleaned up their game and proved to the world that they can indeed play on clay. Serena, especially, had an amazing run on the clay courts throughout America and Europe last year, apart from the surprise defeat she suffered here last year to unheralded Patty Schnyder. She made the final of Berlin, won the prestigious Rome event (which Jelena had captured the year before) and won the French Open. Subsequently, she can now be considered a solid clay court player and even though power is limited on clay courts, Serena was still able to hit unprecedented amounts of winners in the process. What is particularly interesting these days is that the younger Williams sister is also trying to adapt elements of finesse into her game which can be really hazardous on clay. The question is: will she be able to repeat the same success in 2003, or be dumped by the strong games of Clijsters and Dokic when it comes to clay?!

Dokic, on the other hand, also had a great start to the clay season last year when she won Sarasota, reached the final at Strasbourg and made the quarterfinals of the French Open. Her game adapts well to clay in that a lot of the shots she makes find the lines more easily and as a result, she puts her opponents on the defensive for the majority of her matches.

Career Meetings:

Serena leads the charge of her head-to-head record with Jelena at 3-0:

QF Los Angeles 2002 S. Williams (1) d. Dokic (8) 7-6 6-0

QF Tokyo S. Williams (2) d. Dokic (8) 6-3 6-4

4 US Open S.Williams (5) d. Dokic 7-6 6-0

All of their matches have been close and who knows what could have happened if Jelena had won the first set in their meetings at the US Open and LA. In fact, in their last meeting, Dokic was slaughtering her opponent with a 4-1 lead and strong service games. However, with the contribution of an injury, she was unable to maintain her lead and was bageled in the second set. Regardless of this, it just proves that Dokic can handle the power of the Williams’ games and still goes for her shots with confidence and enthusiasm. With clay being Jelena’s possible best surface, she has a great chance to stretch Serena and even beat her. She will have to work hard though and keep with Williams throughout the match, unlike in her match with Kim Clijsters in the quarterfinals at Miami a month ago where Clijsters was able to break away with match after 2-2 in the first set.

Prediction: