After taking a break by not playing doubles in Los Angeles last week, Jelena will be teamed up with American doubles specialist Corina Morariu it Toronto this week. Due to their doubles ranking, and due to a very strong doubles field this year in Toronto, Jelena and Corina did not get a bye in first round. They first opponents, their first hurdle will be Marion Bartoli of France and Daja Bedanova of Slovakia.

Let's take a closer look at these two.

Marion Bartoli- career-high doubles (as of June 22, 2003): No. 59 (June 9, 2003-present), playing doubles at some very high level considering her career and performances in doubles. She was finalist in Paris and semifinalist in Scottsdale this year, both times she was teamed up with Cohen Aloro.

Daja Bedanova- career-high doubles (as of Nov. 17, 2002): No. 34 (June 10-23, 2002), winner of Canberra where she was teamed up with Russian teen star Safina, and two years ago winner of Bratislava ( with Russian Bovina), and also semifinalist in Antwerp where she was teamed up with Jelena Dokic.

Another must-see first round match! It will be definitely good to see this doubles match. Probably the most interesting doubles match of the day. With Corina Morariu fighting both on and off tennis courts, and Daja coming back from her injury, it will definitely be good to see this very promising doubles match.

Looking at Jelena, she definitely knows how to finish these kind of matches. She played and won in doubles few times playing against both Daja and Marion. It's definitely not something new to her. Nor playing on this type of court against her next opponents. What can be new to her, that is playing with Corina, but playing with Corina can only be a pleasure and a great learning experience for any doubles specialist. As one of the best doubles players at one point of her career, it's sure that Jelena and Corina will not need much of the time to get used to each others game. But then, that is something that Daja and Marion should look at, to try to make so fast and promising start from the beginning. To try to confuse and not to let Jelena and Corina to settle in the match. Just to try and not let them focus, or otherwise they will start packing their bags before it started.

Jelena and Corina must take full advantage of Marion's serve and also not loose their serve. But on the other hand, Marion is very quick, has a great inside out shots, while Daja competes extremely hard and refuses to give away points. Jelena and Corina must control play at all times while positioning themselves on or inside the baseline. They also must look to hit their shots down the line, with Corina going to the net more.

My pick: Jelena Dokic and Corina Morariu in two sets. They have more experience and firepower. I say 6-4, 6-3.

Please feel free to enter our chat room during the match :-)