Last week Jelena unfortunately drew Kim Clijsters as her 2^nd round opponent and this week as she heads to Russia, she will face a familiar draw because if she wins her first round match, then she will have to play the number 2 seed, Amelie Mauresmo. Not to worry though, although Jelena lost to Clijsters 3-6 4-6, this is still a great scoreline considering she went up 3-0 in the second set! So as a result her confidence will undoubtedly be growing and an upset would not be a surprise! First up, however, she will have to face an old rivalry in Alexandra Stevenson.

Dokic and Stevenson first met in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 1999 as qualifiers. Dokic was the favourite in this match considering she had beaten the current world number 1, Martina Hingis, and Mary Pierce along the way but was unfortunately beaten in 3 sets. Since then, they have played another four times with Dokic winning three out of four of them! Their head-to-head record is as follows:

As is evident, Jelena has basically dictated their matches ever since that Wimbledon matchup. However, Dokic did lose to her on the indoor courts at Zurich that is the same type of court that they will be playing on in Moscow. This, on the other hand, was a tough three-setter match that could have gone either way but Alexandra unfortunately prevailed. During this time though, Stevenson was playing extremely well as she had wins over Jennifer Capriati (6-1 6-1) and Conchita Martinez so this loss was nothing to be ashamed of! On a more positive note, Dokic absolutely overpowered her American opponent when they met earlier on in the year on the hardcourts at Stanford whose courts really should have suited Stevenson’s style of game. Based on this and Jelena’s results last week, it would be very hard to see Stevenson winning this match as she sprays more errors than anyone on the tour and often goes for shots that only have a 0.000001% chance of going in or end up winning the point. Plus Dokic knows her game extremely well and if she returns the way she used to, then Stevenson will not stand a chance!

Stevenson’s Game:

Alexandra’s game basically revolves around her serve that is very fast and can get large amounts of height on them. Her backhand is very erratic and as already mentioned above, she tends to go for the winners when she is in the most ridiculous place on court to hit them! Her forehand is a very strong weapon though so Dokic should try and pound her ground strokes to that side if she wants a comfortable win in order to rest for a possible second-round match against Mauresmo.

2003 Brief Fact files:

Jelena Dokic

Titles: 0

Best Tournament Appearances: SF Warsaw, QF Tokyo, Paris, Miami, Vienna, Stanford

Best Scoreline against Top 10 player: Rubin d. Dokic 1-6 6-3 6-4 San Diego

Win/Loss Record: 22-26

Alexandra Stevenson

Titles: 0

Best Tournament Appearances: SF Scottsdale

Best Scoreline against Top 10 Player: Hantuchova d. Stevenson 7-6 6-4 Eastbourne

Win/Loss Record: 10-21

 

From these facts, it is apparent that Dokic has had by far the more consistent year out of the two, especially when comparing their 2003 win/loss record. The fact that she has only won 3 matches out of her past 10 events should also be advantageous for Jelena as her confidence levels must be low, thus allowing Dokic to capitalize and dominate her opponent.

Prediction:

Dokic wins in 2 sets.

Good luck Jelena!