|
|
|
|
Article sent by Glyn James Pacific Life Open;Indian Wells.Jelena travels to California this week for the Pacific Life Open, which will be the start of the biggest month of her year thus far. The tournament is a two-week Tier I with $2,100,000 of prize money available. The event will be played outdoors on a hardcourt. The site itself is one to be admired. The Indian Wells Tennis Garden cost around $75 million and features a 16,100 capacity stadium. Over 88 acres of space, the site consists of two stadiums. eleven sunken courts and six practice courts. If anyone's interested in going there this year, the nearest airport is Palm Strings International Airport. More information about the city can be found at www.indianwells.org. Also, you can check the official tournament website at www.pacificlifeopen.com for information on tickets, schedules, TV listings and aeroplanes or something. Tournament sponsors include Head, Mathis Brothers and Penn, whilst the tournament partner is Pacific Life. Jelena and Indian Wells.Interestingly enough, Jelena has only ever won two matches at this event. Her first was against Croatian Silvija Tajala in the second round of the 2000 event, whilst her second was in the second round of 2002 against Elena Bovina of Russia (In both these tournaments, Jelena received a first round bye). Last year, Jelena received another first round bye before unbelievably crashing to the German Barbara Rittner, who hadn't played any competitive tennis since last year's Australian Open. The Pacific Life Open represents an important milestone over the last few years for Jelena. By this time, we usually start tiring of excuses such as 'early season jitters.' When the event is over, we usually judge whether Jelena is in a slump, or whether Jelena is progressing nicely through the season. It will again prove to be a telling tale. Jelena admitted last week that she was indeed in a slump and that it would take time before she starts to win matches again, but that somewhat pessimistic point of view would be altered dramatically should she put in a decent performance here. Once again there's no pressure of defending points, so we sit and pray that she can capitalise on the opportunity and claim some ranking points before next week's defence of a QF at Key Biscayne arrives. The Draw.Jelena is the number nine seed for the draw, and won't start playing until Thursday at the earliest. Also, there's no sign of those Williamses.
As expected, the two week event has a very large draw which can be fairly difficult to get through. Here's the important things that you need to know. Jelena has a first round bye and in the second round will most likely come up against Tatiana Panova. Jelena scored her most impressive victory of the season over the diminutive Russian in Tokyo last month with an impressive 6-1 6-1 scoreline. In fact, Jelena has only ever lost once to Panova, in Filderstadt 2002. We know that she won't make too many mistakes and will play defensive tennis and hope Jelena makes plenty of unforced errors. If Jelena plays consistent and aggressive, there should be no trouble at all. However, if Jelena plays the way she has done in recent weeks, there could be another early exit beckoning. In the third round, Jelena would be expected to come up against Daniela Hantuchova. The Slovakian beauty has gone down a similar path to Jelena's. Both showed great potential but have wained somewhat. Hantuchova's demise has arguably been more dramatic than Jelena's, and she now finds herself at #36 in the world. Asides from an impressive win over Maria Sharapova in Tokyo, she has shown very little in 2004, and is just coming back from injury. It's not a cert that Hantuchova will reach this stage, but she only has to win one match against a qualifier or the Wild Card entrant Jamea Jackson. Should Jelena meet Hantuchova though, it could be a nervy error strewn match as both players will know that the other is low on confidence. Incidentally, Hantuchova leads the head-to-head race 3-1, although Jelena reigned victorious in the last meeting between the two in Linz, 2003. The first two matches are certainly the most important for Jelena. Should she win two matches and fall at the next hurdle then it is easily forgivable. If she does win these matches, she would come up against Petrova in the fourth round and Lindsay Davenport in the quarters. It's very difficult to see her getting past this point so I shalln't comment on these matches in great detail. If Jelena fails to score a victory here then many people will be pushing panic buttons. There is still a long, long way to go in the 2004 season, but many people are desperate for some victories, and they want them sooner rather than later. Prediction -1rd - Bye. 2rd - Jelena def Panova in three. 3rd - Jelena def. Hantuchova in two. 4rd - Petrova def. Jelena in three. comments: g_l_james@hotmail.com |
