JELENA-DOKIC.com - May 30,
2003
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JELENA
CORNER
by Todd Spiker
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**ROLAND GARROS POINTS BREAKDOWN**
2157.....May 26 points
32.......2r
8........1r: Roesch (#90) - 6-4,6-4
0........2r: Pisnik (#54) - 6-4,3-6,2-6
40.......RG TOTAL
-238.....2002 points off (QF)
+42......new 17th best total (Berlin 03)
-196.....POINTS FOR WEEK
1961.....June 9 points
--A PAINFULLY PRICELESS PARIS POSTMORTEM--
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Jelena, on
the changes coach Heinz Gunthardt is
attempting to make in her game: "I think that
is a big part of the reason why I am losing
matches at this moment, but I have to be
prepared to get through it."
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Up a set and a break, with a 25-2 record in grand slam
matches when you win the 1st set? Great.
Against the world #54, whom you have a 6-0 record
against dating back to your junior days? Wonderful.
A 39-9 edge in groundstroke/volley winners... and you
STILL lose in three sets, and are fairly much blown out in
the final two? Priceless.
Well, that's precisely what happened to Jelena against
Tina Pisnik in the 2r of Roland Garros. 89 unforced
errors (14 of them double faults), another blown match
against a player she's better than... only this time in an
ever-important slam rather than a Tier II or III.
Consider the clock now officially ticking on the Gunthardt
Experiment. If the timer hits 00:00, the result will have
Jelena seeing Steffi Graf's old coach in the rear view
mirror of Enrique Bernoldi's car... waving goodbye and
thinking, "it was nice knowing ya."
At least I guess the two would share the sentiment,
which could be a stretch in the near future if things
don't change soon. Up to now, the Dokic/Gunthardt teaming
has pretty much been a bust. Her confidence is nearly
nonexistent after putting together the worst start to a
season in her career, and now she sees her ranking points
dipping under the magical 2000 level for the first time
since late 2001... and she could slip farther away from
the Top 10 by the time she heads back to the States if the
grass turns out to be just as far away from a source of
salvation as the clay turned out to be.
**JELENA's CAREER BY SURFACE**
GRASS........36-10.......78.3%
CLAY.........60-33.......64.5%
HARD.........96-59.......61.9%
CARPET.......15-15.......50.0%
But even if this lull continues as EuroJelena reaches
its finish line, all hope need not be lost. It's still
early enough for Jelena to pull things together and
salvage a quickly-dwindling season. She said a while ago
that it might take six-plus months for the Gunthardt
Experiment to take hold, a time period which would end
right around the time of the US Open. As recently as a
few weeks ago (and again after the Pisnik match), she
admitted to the possibility of 2003 being a step-back year
she'll need to regroup from in 2004. So, she's not
completely lost along this path to the promised land...
she's just having a difficult, but correctable, time with
her sense of direction.
Jelena has never been known for her patience on or off
the court, and now it will be tested in her tennis life
like never before. She has publicly talked up the
importance of her slam performances this year. Well, so
far she's 0-for-1. Wimbledon is next, and if she goes
0-for-2 then the North American hardcourt season could be
a make or break time for the Dokic/Gunthardt relationship.
Make no mistake, Jelena is TRYING to change. It just
isn't working.
The time for Jelena to rethink things isn't yet here
(though it'd be difficult to be surprised if we saw an
article soon about how she has decided to do just that).
The search for a "new" Jelena required a commitment, and
one must believe that she knew it wasn't going to be an
easy transformation. Overcoming a lifetime of tennis
habits never is.
Still, she began the year saying she'd "see how things
work" in regards to the Gunthardt Experiment. A 12-14
record four months later surely isn't what she was looking
for. So, is it time to cut her losses? Not yet. In the
lanuage of baseball, consider Roland Garros strike one.
The Experiment still has two more strikes left to give.
Now, England will provide the next opportunity for a
salvage operation.
There was some good news in Jelena's Paris
performance... well, it COULD be. She DID follow through
on Gunthardt's forward-moving gameplan with 34 net
approaches in the Pisnik match (she converted 17). It's a
gameplan that might work better on the fast grass than it
did on the slow red clay. Of course, if she continues to
toss in a dozen or more double faults a match, that won't
matter. Gunthardt can only do so much. He can't serve
FOR her, nor can he single-handedly build back up her
lagging confidence. The only person who can do that is
someone else that Jelena sees every morning... when she
looks in the mirror.
When SW19 ends, the Corner will once again take the
annual mid-season look at The State of Jelena's Game.
Let's hope the exercise won't recall an old George Orwell
novel entitled "Down and Out in Paris and London," where
the British author joined the homeless on the streets of
Europe and saw how the other half lived. As June arrives,
Jelena is half-way there after having put the finishing
touches on the French chapter of EuroJelena.
We shouldn't be too pessimistic about the Gunthardt
Experiment working in 2003, but the project is now
officially in jeopardy of being scrapped, no matter the
pronouncements to the contrary that will likely be heard
over the next month. After all, since when have Jelena's
actual words been able to be taken as gospel, anyway?
Gospel of the moment, maybe, but gospel of next week, or
next month? Never.
The clock on this timebomb hasn't yet hit 00:00, but
the odds of it happening by the end of the summer are
getting shorter and shorter wtih every loss to a Pisnik,
or a Sprem, or a Rittner or, well, you get the picture.
Tick, tick, tick...
=========================================
**JELENA ON CLAY**
1999.......8-6
2000.......9-4
2001......16-8
2002......20-7
2003.......7-8
**JELENA MATCH STATS COMPARISON**
2002.........................2003
17-8........3-setters.........2-7
10-5........tie-breaks........5-1
21-10.....extended sets.......6-5
11-22.....down 1-0 sets......1-12
41-4.......up 1-0 sets.......11-2
**2nd Quarter JD.com REPORT CARD**
Sarasota........1r/Suarez........F
Charleston......QF/S.Williams....B
Amelia Island...3r/Raymond.......C
Warsaw..........SF/Mauresmo......B+
Berlin..........3r/Tulyaganova...C-
Rome............1r/Martinez......D-
Strasbourg......2r/Sprem.........F
Roland Garros...2r/Pisnik........D-
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NEXT CORNER:
EuroJelena, Stage 2: The Grass
