Linz, Austria
Jelena Dokic def. Petra Mandula 6-3, 3-6 and 6-3

Rolland Garros, June 10, 2001 - Jelena Dokic had an open draw at the French Open. No opponent she would have not been the clear favourite until the Semifinal. But two rounds before that she had to face Petra Mandula.....

Linz, October 23, 2003 - Jelenea Dokic had an open draw at the Generali Ladies Open. No opponent she would not be the clear favourite until the Semifinal. But two round before that she had to face Petra Mandula again.

And it seemed that Jelena had the same thoughts as me when she heared that name. She had a nervous start, was unable to put pressure on her opponent, and every good ball was followed by a bad one. On top of that, Petra really has the game to compete with players like Jelena from the baseline, and if Jelena would have not been mentally 100% there she would have lost.

But it was close enough anyway. Has Jelena been there on decisive points in set one to decide that one for her favour, she had to play in set2 not only against Mandula, who played a class better than vs. Schett. And not only against the memories from Paris. Now she also got influenced negatively by the cold she has catched and the longer the set lasted the more difficulties she had to focus. And so she took a "mental-break" and gave that set away.

At the decisive set Jelena still was far away from playing her best tennis, but mentally she did a hell of a job there. She ignored the bad memories, ignored the pain in her feet, ignored just everything and waited passionately for the decisive moment of the match to be there. And that moment came. Up till then the Hungarian only served 2 double faults, but got broken every time she did so. Her third double fault happened when Mandula served for 4all and was 30-15 up. 30 all now, Jelena was there! Physically, Mentally, Emotionally!

She broke Mandula for 5-3 and broke her willpower also as Jelena had made clear in the service games before there will be no way to break the no 14 of the world. She had 5 aces only in that set so far, and served that match home with 3 service-winners and ace no 9 for today.

As i said: Physially a good performance of Jelena. But mentally that was a fantastic job today :-)