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Article written by Glyn James
The French Open:Bonjour mes amies Francais - Over the forthcoming fortnight Jelena will be participating in her first Grand Slam of the year in Roland Garros, Paris for the French Open. Usually this would be a time of high expectancy and optimism, with many believing that this is Jelena's time. Unfortunately, this year, many believe it will be a miracle if Jelena survives the first week. The tournament isn't quite as prestigious as Wimbledon or the US Open, but it is certainly one of the highlights of the year. It has just over five and a half million euros as total prize money for the women's singles and boasts a centre court (aka Philippe Chatrier court) which seats15,059. If you're still hoping to get some tickets, then forget it. The deadline passed on May the 4th, but not to worry, you can catch the action live almost anywhere in the world via TV, and that also means you don't have to encounter France and the French. Check local listings for details. If you do fancy your chances with the French, then you can find plenty of details on tickets and directions on the official site, but since we're nice here, I'll put a link up to the exact page .... so here it comes! - http://www.frenchopen.org/en_FR/about/ticket.html. You can also contact Monsieur Stephane Simian on the phone at 33-1-47-43-4800. As expected, the tournament is completely packed with advertisments and sponsorship deals. Some of the more well known sponsors include IBM, Orange, Adidas and Lacoste. Now shall we get down to the slightly more serious issue concerning our Yugoslavian starlet? Anyone for cricket? - Is anyone else feeling slightly stressed by this tennis lark? Last week we prayed that Jelena would get an easy opening second round match, and who did she get? Karolina Sprem, the Croatian #5. BINGO. A perfect chance to slaughter some easy meat. Unfortunately, Jelena seemed to swing with her butcher's knife, miss the meat, and hit herself plum on the nose, thus rendering her dazed, confused, and drained of any remaining confidence in herself. Jelena stated that she didn't play very well. At least she got that bit right. So how does Jelena possibly gather her thoughts and re-focus? Well, in typical Dokic fashion, she must simply forget about her past poor performances. They don't exist anymore, and Jelena never wants to have to deal with them again. And it's all down to 'that idiot' with the beard (sorry for the lack of originality Todd). This is a big occassion, and it's sometimes what one needs in order to find themselves again. Surely Jelena must be thinking that things can't really get much worse. Hopefully, we will see Jelena playing a lot looser, and maybe (just maybe) she'll hit those balls earlier, and come into the net with more success, giving her the belief that these tactics are beneficial to her. A belief which seems to be waining with every early loss. Jelena DID beat Magui Serna just a few weeks ago, when Serna was the hottest player on the tour, so a good performance isn't beyond her, and she'll need to start pulling some good performances out of the bag if she has any intentions of staying in the top ten, or even the top sixteen. Irrational optimism is something very new to me ... I hope it pays dividens. Le Draw - Here's how the draw looks. Jelena is the #10 seed.
Stay tuned for JM's preview for some detailed analysis of the draw, or you can read Jelena's corner, and you can also check out Gerhard's match previews for more information on Jelena's opponents / prospective opponents. I think I would have to mention Jelena's slight fortune in the draw though. She couldn't have asked for a much easier first round opponent, and as the #10 seed, her path through to the 4rd isn't extremely clouded ... although there hasn't had to be any clouds to upset Jelena this year. Jelena has drawn the German Angelika Roesch, someone with an even worse record than Jelena. She is 2-11 this year, and Jelena should be able to take this athlete racquetless. I really should've emphasised the word SHOULD in the last sentence. But hey, that doesn't exist anymore. A tricky route then lies ahead for Jelena with prospective match-ups with Koukalova, Martinez and Davenport lying ahead, although Davenport has yet to play on the red clay this year, and Jelena was very close to defeating Martinez whilst performing her worst against her, so there is a very dim, and very small silver lining to the 2003 thunder-storm cloud. Let's hope Jelena can find some inspiration within that silver lining. Conclusion - Despite my earlier apparent optimism I can't help but feel negative. 2003 has taught me to never expect much from Jelena, because even when things finally look like taking a u-turn, everything comes crashing down and we greet that all too familiar square one again. If you fancy a flutter, it may not be a bad idea to put some of your money against Jelena to win her first round match-up. Roesch is about 5-1 to beat Jelena, so you could have a small cushion to fall back on whilst despairing Jelena's poor form, and if Jelena does win, then hey, the sacrifice of money is perfectly fine if the consequences include Jelena winning ... although only a very strict determinist would attempt to find some type of link between the two. What I'm basically trying to say this week, is that I don't have a clue whatsoever as to what Jelena is going to do at the French Open. Who knows, maybe she'll even dress up as a clown and play? ------------------------------------------------------------------- Prediction (al beit an optimistic one) 1rd - DOKIC def. Roesch in two. 2rd - DOKIC def. Koukalova in two. 3rd - DOKIC def. Martinez in two. 4rd - Davenport def. DOKIC in three. ------------------------------------------------------------------- comments: glyn_james@jelena-dokic.com |
