Jelena-Dokic.com
JELENA CORNER
September 27, 2004
STATE OF JELENA'S GAME REPORT (2004):
Nothing is Entirely What It Seems... But Everything Is
Exactly As It Appears
(part 1 of 3)
by Todd Spiker (with liberal assistance
from George Orwell)
PART I: THE CLOCK STRIKES THIRTEEN
>>>"It was a bright cold day in September, and the
clocks were striking thirteen. Jelena Dokic, her
chin nuzzled into her breast
in an effort to escape the
vile wind whipping through the grounds outside the
stadium, slipped quickly through the door leading
to the lockerroom, though not
quickly enough to prevent a
swirl of gritty dust from entering along with her.
The room smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag
mats." [paraphrased from the
opening lines of the novel 1984,
published in 1949]
The clocks might not quite be striking thirteen in the
bizarre void in time that has become the tennis
career of Jelena Dokic, but
12:59 is beginning to bear down
on the would-be Fair One. In true Orwellian
fashion, nothing is entirely
what it seems... but everything is
exactly as it appears.
No, this Corner isn't meant to be a poison pen letter.
In a sense, it serves as this season's de facto
"State of Jelena's Game" report. Only with
Jelena's tennis in such an
apparent state of disrepair (nine
straight losses, and a season mark of 6-16, will
do that to a player's game),
it more accurately resembles a
"State of Jelena" report. How did things get to
this point? Who should bear the brunt of the
blame? And how can things be
righted before Miss Dokic
reaches the point of no return?
A few years ago, it wasn't difficult to see potential
trouble on the horizon. The Dokic game was never
built for the long haul, nor consistent winning.
As one-dimensional as it's
always been, it's inherently
overly dependent on momentum. A player can only hit
the ball as hard (and, hopefully, as accurately)
as she can, aiming to outlast
the opponent and generally
ride the crest of a wave of confidence to a match
point for so long. Eventually, the book is
written on how to defeat such
a player: spin shots to keep her
from establishing a rhythm, make her awkwardly
move forward, frustrate her...
and wait for the avalanche of
errors to be triggered. At that point, any good
player on the other side of the net isn't
surprised by anything that's
dished out (Jelena's always been at a
loss for strategy when her shots aren't hitting
their intended lines, without
a virtual mental rolodex to
flip through to find a Plan B that will stem the tide
of failure), and the outcome of the match rests
solely on which of the two can
limit their errors and play
just well enough to not give the match away. Unless a
player is as overwhelmingly talented as a Serena
Williams, or as strong-willed as a Justine
Henin-Hardenne, every match is a potential
struggle, and their upward
mobility in the sport is limited
and/or sporadic.
Nothing's really changed on this front for Jelena over
the years. Still, she admirably reached a
certain level of success (#4
in the world). She accomplished
much to be proud of, but as good as the 18-year
old Jelena was in her career
season of 2001 (3 titles) her
further progress was stunted by her game's
limitations. She rarely ever beat the very top
players that she desired to climb over in the
rankings. Thinking back, this situation was
precisely why she decided to
enter into the coaching
relationship with Heinz Gunthardt -- to attempt to
improve her game, adding wrinkles that might help
her overcome her deficiencies
(serve, net play, forward
movement) and become a more complete player. The
Gunthardt Experiment was ultimately abandoned
less than mid-way through last
season, and it was common at
the time to harp on Gunthardt's apparent inability to
adapt to his female charge. His stark commentary
concerning those difficulties in focusing Jelena
-- who he alleged was more
interested in beaches &
Bernoldi than striving to improve her tennis -- only
opened him up to more criticism. But was the
failure of the Gunthardt
Experiment the fault of Steffi Graf's
former coach, or that of Jelena? Unfortunately,
it's starting to become clear
that Gunthardt's laments about
Jelena's preference for play over hard work
making his job an impossible one might have
struck closer to the core of
the real truth than most wanted
to admit at the time.
Jelena said that Gunthardt's attempt to foster an
attacking style of play was working in practice,
but after improved results
failed to immediately
materialize she stated that her confidence was at an
"all-time low." Thus, it was Borna Bikic who
took his turn at riding to the
rescue following last year's
Roland Garros. Nothing much changed results-wise,
until one magnificent week in Zurich produced a
win over world #1 Kim
Clijsters and a run to the Tier I's
final. The season's penultimate event seemed to
"save" her 2003 campaign. But as the one year
anniversary of that week approaches, the 369
points that Jelena earned for
her work in Switzerland
accounts for 50.5% of all the WTA ranking points she's
earned from that week until now. Take that week
away and Jelena's singles
ranking falls from #43 to #104.
For all the hope that the close of 2003 provided, the
Bikic period of Jelena's career has been nothing
short of an abject disaster.
She's gone 23-32 in her 55
matches with Bikic at the helm. While the won/lost
record isn't markedly worse than it was over the
55 pre-Bikic matches (a barely
mediocre 29-26), the general
tenor and tone of Jelena's
losses through 2004 have been
about as discouraging as humanly imaginable. No
solution has been found for what ails her game, or the
wounded psyche she lugs around with her from
event to event all over the
globe. Worse yet, lately, most
opponents haven't even needed to follow the
aforementioned gameplan. No waiting game is
necessary to defeat her these
days. In 2004, a player oftens
needs to simply deliver one good blow and she'll
give up, hang her head and
look for a way out as if she's
an overmatched boxer ready to quit on the stool
between rounds. The old Dokic fight, while not
extinct, has become a fleeting anomaly. Now, she
seems to be a weak-minded player who throws up
her hands in disgust at the
slightest hint of adversity. A
player has to WANT to win in order to do it. At the
moment, that seems to be far from the formerly
Fair One's mind and grasp.
That doesn't mean that the
desire won't some day return, but it's no longer as
simple a thing as misplaced confidence being at
the root of Jelena's problems.
If there's any doubt, just
look at her response to her single moment of success
over the past five months -- the end of her
13-set losing streak, in the
1st Round of the US Open. How
did she react to a now-rare moment of prosperity? She
dropped the next set to Nathalie Dechy at love.
Nothing is entirely what it seems... but everything is
exactly as it appears.
(come back for Part II tomorrow)
