JELENA-DOKIC.com - October 14, 2003

JELENA CORNER REPORT
by Todd Spiker


 

MONDAY WAS A SWISS CHOCOLATE-COVERED DREAM

   Monday, in the land of chocolate and neutrality, Jelena stumbled upon the taste of sweet success.
   Oh, don't get TOO excited, though.  her First Round victory in Zurich wasn't exactly a work of art fit to hang above her mantle... but beggars can't be choosers, and Jelena's results have been the equivalent of wandering the streets in tattered clothing for some time now.
   Against the #10-ranked Chanda Rubin, Jelena raced to a 6-1 opening set win.  In the second, she led 2-0, 4-2 and served for the match at 5-4... but ended up losing the set 5-7 and a distinctly familiar stench was in the air.  Was another confidence-busting loss at hand?  Another semi-tank?  Another Filderstadt?  Another Ashe Stadium-like collapse?  A repeat of the Rubin match in San Diego earlier this summer, when Jelena won the 1st set 6-1 and went on to go out meekly in the final two stanzas?  For once, the answers to all was "no."
   Instead, we were treated to a minor flashback to better times.  Jelena led 2-0, 4-0 in the third.  But, things never being easy, it was soon 4-3 and 5-4 before she was able to serve out the match at 6-4 to put the finishing touch on her first victory over a Top 10 player in fourteen months (in Montreal last August against Martina Hingis... remember her?).
 

Said Rubin:  "She hasn't done much at all, so it's a disappointing loss.  She just hits the ball.  There is no rhyme or reason.  There really wasn't any flow to my returns."

   Now, before we hang Rubin in effigy for what sounds like being a sore loser, let's close our eyes and try to think who she sounds like.  How close are Rubin's comments to the "I lost the match, she didn't win it" post-match grumblings that have come from the lips of a certain former Australian over the past year?
   Fact is, Rubin is generally on target when she chooses to make a blunt assessment.  Let us not forget that she WAS the author of the infamous "semi-tank" tag last summer.
   The lack of a "rhyme or reason" that Rubin mentioned is essentially what's been a topic in these parts so often during the last eighteen months -- that Jelena has often seemed to lack a real gameplan, no "Plan B," and simply relies (too?) much on her ability to just pound the ball as hard as she can.  Sometimes it works and she wins five titles in two years.  Sometimes it blows up in her face and she makes just two quarterfinals in her last eighteen tournaments.
   The Rubin win certainly wasn't a sterling Jelena performance:  16 double faults, 40 unforced errors.  So seeing it through rose-colored glasses wouldn't be recommended.  But it should also be noted that while Rubin committed 32 unforced errors, she had 26 errors that were deemed to be "forced" to just 14 of that nature for Jelena.  The Fair One DID manage to do some things very well, not the least of which was simply hanging in a match that very easily could have slipped through her fingers as so many others have this season.


 

Jelena:  "Once I get my confidence back it will be better.  I need to work now for next year, mentally and physically."

   Hopefully, Monday afternoon in Zurich will help Jelena's efforts to eradicate her confidence crisis; but to think one victory will solve all her problems would be premature.  There's still work to be done, and remaining unfinished business that led her to undertake the Gunthardt Experiment in the first place.
   But that's all long-term stuff to dwell on next month.  While the glow of a great win still lingers, this IS a moment for everyone to be encouraged... and for Jelena to hold her head up high once again.  I think everyone's kind of forgotten what that feels and looks like.  Jelena probably has, too.
   It feels pretty good, doesn't it?