Could it be that the reports of Jelena's revival were greatly exaggerated?
   Apparently, the Fair One was still in vacation mode in Dubai.  Problem was, she had a tournament to play... err, make that a match.  Actually, it's debatable whether or not she even managed that meager goal.  After a disheartening 1-6/2-6 defeat at the hands of world #40 Petra Mandula, it's hard to tell anything these days.  Again.
 

   Needless to say, Jelena failed her "ghostly test" with crashing colors, and it can't help but raise serious questions about her mindset, as well as the course of the rest of this quarter and beyond.  Sure, the WTA season is a marathon and not a sprint.  Plus, Jelena has a long history of slow/mediocre season starts (she's 32-30 in 1Q matches for her career, including her 3-3 mark at this latest mid-quarter point).  Hey, maybe even that Tokyo groin injury is still a problem.  But a 1 & 2 loss to Mandula only makes everyone shake their head.  View the last few weeks through any shade of rose-colored glasses you wish, but we've see this pattern too many times over the last year and a half to simply brush off what's happened so far in 2004 as "trivial."
   Since Jelena led Elena Bovina 6-4/6-5 in Paris she's lost 20 of her last 23 games and put on quite the serving show... if you define "show" as a tutorial in how to lose said serve.  She's now dropped three straight matches.  Again.  Throughout her career she's lost three or more consecutive times on eight different occasions.  Five of those streaks have occurred over the last seventeen months.
 

   After Paris and Dubai, who doesn't now look back at the Tokyo SF result with fresh eyes and a different perspective?  Remember, Jelena nearly lost her 1st Round match there to Cara Black (coming within a 7-5 2nd set tie-break from going out in straights), had to go three sets against world #166 Janette Husarova and had essentially a bad "practice session" against Lindsay Davenport.  The only clear victory came against Tatiana Panova, one of the few players attempting a comeback from a more disasterous 2003 campaign than Jelena's (she was #250 as Tokyo began).  Could it be that the Fair One was more "lucky" than "good" in Japan?
   If we don't see a change soon, it might be time to think about a vast alteration of expectations.  Dubai signified that "Great Mandula's Ghost" is alive and well... I guess we'll see in Doha whether Jelena is or not.
   It's been said that if you have nothing good to say it's sometimes better to say nothing at all.
   So...