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Article sent by Glyn James
Hastings Direct International Championships:Welcome to Eastbourne - On the back of yet another disappointment, Jelena makes her move to sunny England desperately trying to forget her clay court season woes. Surprisingly she opted to delay her grass court season for one week by rejecting to play in Birmingham, but now she feels the time has come to prepare for Wimbledon by playing in Eastbourne. It is a Tier II event with $585,000 of prize money. If you're intending to go there yourself, then you should catch a flight to London Gatwick International Airport which is just 45 minutes away from the event by train. Tournament sponsors include Hastings Direct motor insure, the All England Lawn Tennis Association and the Eastbourne Borough Council. Despite the organiser's claims, the British public seem to know very little about the tournament. Of course, by the time of Wimbledon, everyone's a tennis expert, but this tournament holds little prestige to the average Brit, and only tennis enthusiasts and the tea swigging upper classes of England are at all familiar with it. If you'd like to know anything else about the tournament, then don't hesitate to ask John Feaver at John.Feaver@lta.org.uk. Let's play some 'stupid matches' - Jelena made her mark on last year's event as the number one seed, but yet again, it was for all of the wrong reasons. Following a loss to Daja Bedanova, Jelena was unhappy at not being scheduled to play on the centre court, despite being the number one seed, and claimed the tournament organisers had put some 'stupid matches' on there instead. Of course, Martina Navratilova's return to singles match was one of the matches put on centre court, against her disciple Daniela Hantuchova, and thus the media leeched on to this quote claiming that Jelena was speaking specifically about this match. Naturally Jelena was dubbed a homophobe and a prejudical person, and the reporters went back to their lovely little homes with their pockets overflowing with gold. This year however, Jelena is probably more likely to make the headlines after a 'shock' victory in the early rounds. It seems that the British media don't take form into account, but that's a matter I'd rather not get into. (Did you know that a reporter at the DFS Classic had to ask me how old Dementieva was??? "She's 22 right?") I guess that as a saving glimmer of hope lies the fact that there's a surface change occuring, and this is representative of a 'fresh start' and such, but unfortunately my pessimistic demons have had the better of me in recent weeks, and with some justification too. Jelena's form has fizzled into an all-time low and has decided to stay there. I'm sure even the Jelena that won the junior US Open Champion in 1998 would push the present day Jelena, but I must reitterate that Jelena's game is going through a huge transitional period, and we must take this in mind before passing judgment. Jelena can play on grass, and will have a much better opportunity to implement some volleying tactics on this faster surface. The Draw - The draw has been made, and Jelena is the number six seed:
Conclusion - Jelena is likely to have a battle on her hands in the opening rounds. Qualifiers are always difficult in that they've battled so much to enter the main draw and aren't particularly keen on throwing away everything they've worked for without a fight. Jelena should though, even in current form, have enough to get over this obstacle. The second round however will be an even bigger task. Jelena will, almost certainly, face the Greek Eleni Daniilidou, a very competent grass courter and fresh from a semi-final performance on the grass of Birmingham. Jelena is also in the quarter of defending champion Chanda Rubin, and in the half of Jennifer Capriati. Not to mention career thorn in the side Lindsay Davenport lurking on the other end of the draw. This week will be an extremely tough week, and it's unlikely that Jelena will go into Wimbledon with much more confidence. ----------------------------------------------------------- PREDICTION - 1rd - Jelena def. 'qualifier' in three. 2rd - Daniilidou def. Jelena in three. ----------------------------------------------------------- comments: glyn_james@jelena-dokic.com |
