Article sent by Todd Spiker

**44 SHORT THOUGHTS ABOUT JELENA DOKIC**


And we're off...


JELENA QUOTE MOST LIKELY TO BE BROUGHT UP IN 2004's 1st QUARTER:  "I want to do well in those early tournaments and hopefully be back in the Top 10 by March (2004)."  To cement Jelena's notion, I now introduce JD.com's Top 10 Ticker, a Jelena Corner exclusive (until it's no longer necessary, that is).  Here's a sneak peek at the first installment, effective the opening week of the new season:

J-CORNER TOP 10 TICKER
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TARGET DEADLINE=Mar.29
Weeks Remaining.....13
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Pre-Week 1
#10 Sugiyama......2235
Jelena #15........1405
Points Away........830
2003 Week 1
Jelena.............DNP
Sugiyama..GCoast 1r(1)


FACT:  At 20, Jelena is still the fourth-youngest player in the Top 20.  She's just 11 days older than third-youngest Daniela Hantuchova, and 57 days the senior of second-youngest Kim Clijsters.  Vera Zvonareva, 18, is the youngest Top 20er.
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"GOOD" FACT: 73.7% of Jelena's 2003 losses came against players who won either WTA or ITF singles titles (or, in the case of Maria Sharapova, both) last season.
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BAD FACT:  Last season, #15 Jelena was the only player in the Top 40 who had a sub-.500 won/loss record in WTA events (28-30, .483).  The next highest-ranked players with losing WTA marks were #41 Emilie Loit (25-26) and #46 Laura Granville (25-26); and you'd have to go as far down as #53 Nicole Pratt (21-25, .457) to find a player with a worse WTA winning percentage in 2003.


**DID YOU KNOW?**
If the WTA Championship format had remained the same as in previous seasons (a 16-player, single elimination tournament, as opposed to an 8-player Round Robin competition), Jelena would have qualified as the 12th seed despite having completed the worst year of her pro career.


CORNER RESOLUTION:  To resurrect Jelena's Ashe Stadium collapse last August multiple times during the coming season, in a play on words that will either speak to a Fair One rebound (say, "She's fully risen from the ashes of that Ashe Stadium low point that now seems like a lifetime ago") or, unfortunately, relapse (I don't know, maybe something along the lines of, "Jelena was rooting around in Ashe's ashes again during yesterday's match and, boy, are her hands dirty").
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PREDICTION:  There'll be significantly more of the former than the latter over the next eleven months.
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HOLIDAY WISH:  That Jelena faces off against Mary Pierce early in the season in a rematch of the Ashe Stadium battle where she squandered that 5-1 3rd set lead... and we'll be able to have a wake for "The Ashes of Ashe" the very next day.


*JELENA's LAST 5 SLAMS*
-5 losses vs. lower-rankeds-
02 Wimb 4r-Hantuchova(12/JD-7)
02 US 2r-Bovina(61/JD-4)
03 RG 2r-Pisnik(54/JD-11)
03 Wimb 3r-Sharapova(91/JD-12)
03 US 2r-Pierce(64/JD-23)


QUOTE FROM "White Men Can't Jump" THAT MIGHT BE IMPORTANT FOR JELENA IN 2004, AS SHE REFLECTS BACK ON 2003: "Sometimes, when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win."


*TOP 5 JELENA/TOP 10 JELENA*
5....wks at #4
10...weeks in Top 5
82...weeks in Top 10
1st Top 10: Oct.8, '01
Most Recent Top 10: May 25, 2003


HOPE: If the Dokic/Petrova team is kaput for good, that Jelena can find another regular doubles partner with whom she can have success.
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SOME POSSIBILITIES?: After her 13 victories with Nadia Petrova, Jelena won 2 matches each with Corina Morariu, Marion Bartoli, Maja Matevzic and Rennae Stubbs last year.
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PREDICTION: Jelena will win a doubles title with SOMEONE in 2004... grab an entry sheet and a dart to try to pick exactly who it will be.


NUMBERS:  In 2003, Jelena played 58 matches in 16 countries vs. players from 22 different nations.
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ROTTEN NUMBERS:  After finishing tied for 5th in the WTA with 9 SF appearances in 2001, then tied for 2nd with 11 in 2002, Jelena was tied for 24th after just 2 SF-or-better results in 2003.
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MORE THAN RESPECTABLE NUMBERS:  After factoring in end-of-year bonuses, Jelena's 2003 prize money topped $800,000 (US) for the third straight season (she ranked 13th on the season's money list).  Her career earnings are now slightly over $3.5 million, ranking her #36 on the WTA's all-time prize money list, just behind #35 Anna Kournikova.


**DID YOU KNOW?**
Jelena has lost to the same veteran player at least twice in the first half of the season for the last four years.  In 2000, it was Conchita Martinez (0-3), followed by Amanda Coetzer (0-1 WTA, 0-2 exhibition) in 2001, Anne Kremer (0-3) in 2002, and then both Lisa Raymond (0-2) and Paola Suarez (0-2) in 2003.


FACT: As a #1 seed in her WTA career, Jelena is 16-6.
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ANOTHER FACT:  As a #2 seed, she's just 9-10.
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AUCKLAND FACT:  It looks like Jelena will be the #2 seed in her season-opening event, behind top-seeded world #14 Paola Suarez.


DID YOU REALIZE?:  WTA "Golden Girl" Kim Clijsters had more bad offseason press than Jelena for a change... though the Belgian's headline-grabbing incidents DID have a somewhat familiar ring to, say, ANOTHER blonde tennis player's past attention-diverting moments in the spotlight, as the world #2 dealt with the lingering sting of her charged comments about Justine Henin-Hardenne (she accused her of faking an injury and "disrespecting the game"), chose not to officially reprimand or object to her father's insinuations that JHH hadn't gained her new-found physical strength "naturally," attacked press stories about her as false in her official website's personal diary, and had a dispute with her country's tennis federation that led her to boycott the Olympics.
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I WONDER:  ...if Jelena would have similar problems, ala fellow Fila client Clijsters, with wearing something other than her sponsor's gear at the Olympics if she were to end up playing in Athens this summer?


*JELENA vs. RUSSIANS*
[in Top 100]
-WTA/ITF/Jr/Exhib-
Dementieva.......7-2
Krasnoroutskaya..5-0
Myskina..........4-2
Petrova..........3-1
Likhovtseva......2-0
Jidkova..........1-0
Kuznetsova.......1-1
Bovina...........1-1
Zvonareva........0-1
Safina...........0-1
Sharapova........0-1


HOPE:  That Jelena can finally get her first career victory over Lindsay Davenport before the American retires.  She's 0-8, and this could be the former #1's final year on tour.
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HOLIDAY WISH: That the planets will be so aligned that predicting (at the least) Jelena's first grand slam SF since the '00 Wimbledon will be something more than wishful Corner thinking.
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PREDICTION: A win by Jelena over Belgian #1 Justine Henin-Hardenne in 2004 to go along with her win over former Belgian #1 Kim Clijsters in 2003.


**DID YOU KNOW?**
The total distance between the 30 tournament sites where Jelena played in 2003 was 52,763 miles/84,831 km... meaning Jelena's  travels would allow her to circumnavigate the globe 2.12 times.  In fact, if she flew that distance nonstop in a 747 jet at 500mph/805kph it would take her four and a half days to complete the trip.  If she started walking the distance on January 1 at 4mph/6.44kph, it would take her 13,191 hours... or 550 days!  She wouldn't stop walking until she missed not only this year's four grand slams, but also the 2005 Australian, Roland Garros and most of Wimbledon!


**PRE-ZURICH/LINZ 2003 STATS**
Won/Lost.....22-28
3-setters.....5-10
Lost 1st set..2-25
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ZURICH/LINZ STATS
Won/Lost.......6-2
3-setters......4-1
Lost 1st set...2-1


THE LAST AUSTRALIAN MATCH: On January 15, 2001.  A 6-4/4-6/3-6 1st Round loss to Lindsay Davenport at the Australian Open.
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THE LAST AUSTRALIAN WIN:  In September 2000, a 6-1/1-6/6-1 victory over Amanda Coetzer in the Olympic QF in Sydney.
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THE LAST AUSTRALIAN OPEN WIN:  1999 2nd Round, a 6-4/7-5 win over Kristina Brandi, when Jelena was only 16 years old.
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THE LAST (AND ONLY) NEW ZEALAND APPEARANCE:  The Steffi Graf Tribute exhibition in Auckland in February 2000, where Jelena went 1-1 vs. the all-time great... a 3-6/2-6 loss, then a 6-2/3-6/7-6 win.


*DOROTHY TOUR HISTORY*
1999.....5-2
2000.....3-5
2001.....0-1
2002/03..0-0
2004........


HOLIDAY WISH: For a controversy-free Dorothy Tour and, at worst, a mixed reaction in Sydney and Melbourne that only gets more welcoming with each and every victory.
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FEAR: That either an early season injury or another poor start will throw things off kilter and once again ruin the best laid plans of mice and Miss Dokic.
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INTERESTING TO NOTE:  While the Dorothy Tour and 1st Quarter are important, especially with the stated goal of returning to the Top 10 by March, it's been the 2nd Quarter where Jelena has always shined the brightest.  She's won three of her five career titles during those months, and averaged 20 wins during the period from 1999-02.  She managed just 10 wins, though, while going 10-11 during the 2Q in 2003.


JELENA in AUSTRALIA...
13-5...ITF Jr. matches
21-12..WTA/ITF 1997-01


GOOD NEWS: Jelena's Zurich RU and Linz QF got her to #15 in the WTA rankings, and likely assures her of being seeded to make the Round of 16 in Melbourne.
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PREDICTION: She will, too, with her career-best Australian Open result, trumping her 3rd Round result in her main draw slam debut in 1999... right around the date of the birth of what would one day become the Jelena-Dokic.com we all know and love.

My, how time sure flies.


**EARLY 2004 THEME**  She's gotta have it... back


And the Corner thinks she will.  So, onto the next era.