The 17 year old Swiss Girl Myriam Casanova is Jelenas first opponent at her 100st WTA tournament, and she had quite an eventful year to look back at. The girl from Altstetten raised from spot 342 to 49 at the wta-world ranking  from January 2002 until today, but now, she seems to feel the pressure all top players have to deal with.

Only one year ago, Miriam was playing a 50.000$ ITF tournament at Szezecin, which is also in Poland, and she even had to qualify for that. And she did not only qualify without dropping a set, but also reached the quarters. Only one month before that, she reached the final of her very first
WTA-tournament she ever entered, at Budapest. Next she qualified for Wimbledon on her 17th birthday, dropping only 13 games in 3 qualifying matches.There she beat Nagyova and Schett and only lost to Justine Henin in round three. Next she went to Brussels, and she did not win that tournament because of an easy draw. On her way to the final vs. Sanchez Vicario she beat Torrens Valero, Ruano Pascual and the complete german Fed-Cup Team, A. Barna and Martina Müller!

The next tournament which is worth mentioning is Bahia, in Brasil, where Miriam started her next run, surviving the qualification again, and got only stopped by the hottest, and most talented player of the WTA-tour, Jelena Dokic, in 2 tight sets (7-6 and 6-4). And she must have liked the situation, of coming out of the qualification, as her next run happened at Filderstadt. Again she did not loose a set at the "pre-tournament" and then beat not only Lisa Raymond, but also for the first time in her career a top 10 player: Justine Henin! A completely exhausted Miriam Casanova lost then to Elena Dementieva at the Quarters...

But as i said earlier, now Mirian faces pressure. She is already the swiss no 3, and after Martina Hingis has retired, the focus of the swiss papers is also on her. Miriam played 6 tournaments this year, and never managed to reach the third round! Disappointing? Definaltely! The reason for that? Well. At 5 of that 6 tournies, she had a very unlucky draw, as she had to play the cream de la cream of womens tennis in early stages of the tournaments: Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Amelie Mauresmo and Meghannn Shaughnessy! And Miriam lost to all 5 of them, without winning a set, but she did beat the players who she should beat: Barbara Schett, Kirsten Flipkens and Martina Müller. And as there is no rule without an exheption she lost at Sydney to worlds no118 S. Reeves....

The conclusion:
Mirian has certainly a dissapointing start into 2003, but also bad draws, and her luck doesnt seem to change as she is facing another top10 player now. She might misses the savety she could gain at the qualifications, which she doesnt need to enter anymore (or better: is not allowed to enter anymore), and she might has problems handling the media attention she is getting now, but she is definately a young powerful and intelligent player who learned a lot of the matches vs. the best players on the tour, and should be a dangerous opponent for Jelena.

Myriams favourite player is Martina Hingis. And whilst it took Martina 28 Tournaments to be announced as a winner, Myriam needed only three to raise her first cup at Brussels in July 2002.

Melanie Molitor, mother and coach of Martina Hingis, discovered the talent of Casanova, as she watched her playing at the age of 12. She offered Leo Casanova, Myriams father, to train his daughter together with Martina, and of course, he accepted.

Myriam already won more than $ 140.000 in her career, but thats far to less to cover the costs of $ 200.000, what Leo Casanova spent for his daughter per year! And so the former soccer pro founded an investor group who will participate on Myriams possible success.

"Melanie Molitor tells me all the things tactically and technical. I call her before my matches in the evening and ask her what to do against my opponent, and she can tell me many things. But I ask also other Swiss players like Patty Schnyder, and they tell me a things about them." Myriam Casanova

Myriam has beaten Rosanna de los Rios 4-6, 6-4 and 6-3 yesterday to gain the honour to play JELENA DOKIC for the second time in her life.

Gerhard
www.jelena-dokic.com