Oh, my head is ringing... I have to get this out right now.
Forgive me.
"Rain, rain wouldn't go away ...why did it have to do
it to J.? And on this particular day ...the one right
after her birth-day. The Russian? She came and went
...but the schedule was hardly heaven-sent.
Whether or not the Waffle'd been at her best
...Jelena wasn't allowed the required rest. Not
in her quesy condition ...and not after her
afternoon's successful -- but long -- comeback
mission. Jelena, Jelena. Was it something you
ate long before win #8 ...Or just the result of a long
week that began a few days too late? Either way,
she was gone with less fanfare than she'd hoped
...but shame on anyone who found reason
to curse or mope. She followed her Sarasota
resurgenc-y ...with multi-performances displaying
the greatest of urgency. So let everyone raise a voice
and shout ...for we're finally beginning to see
the Jelena we all like talking about."
Now that that's out of my system, on with the business at
hand (I'm sorry... really).
Every girl has her limit, and it seems that Jelena Dokic
found her's in Amelia Island. Stretched to the breaking
point due to an injury scare, a shaky stomach and a
despicable weather forecast, she managed to show more than
once how much she's learned over the course of her wild,
rollercoaster season.
It was quite a week. She pulled out of doubles play with a
strained right abductor, finally showing that a hint of
caution just might reside in the Dokic genes, after all. She
wiped out Mary Pierce in just 38 minutes, more than likely
tripping up tournament organizers who has obviously expected
more of a match since it was given a prime nighttime session
slot. In between the multitude of raindrops, she turned 19
on Friday (and apparently sampled that very unappetizing
looking cake)... then came on court on Saturday and promptly
dropped the first seven games of her QF match to Elena
Dementieva. No worry, though, since the match was fated to
be a Jelena win once the first set had slipped away (NOTE:
see below for a full explanation), as the win tied her
career-best long winning streak of eight matches.
So what if the long-awaited first-ever meeting with Justine
Henin ended with Jelena's second retirement of 2002, this
one thanks to a stomach virus that proved to be too much to
handle barely three hours after she'd match-pointed
Dementieva in her only match over the last two weeks that's
required three full sets. Suffice to say, time was most
definitely not on Jelena's side in Amelia Island.
It might be in Charleston, though. Jelena's riding an 8-1
record on clay this year (and is 12-0 in completed matches
whenver the opponent isn't Anne Kremer), with a title and a
SF under adverse conditions already to her credit. Just as
in 2001, the clay circuit has sparked her season to life
(before long, she might have to reconsider that love of the
hard courts she's talked so often about). The fact, at this
point, is that Roland Garros might be her best shot at a
slam final this year... and whether she can maintain and
improve upon her recent form between Charleston and Rome
will be a clear indicator of her chances to take that
monumental step in June.
The good news right now is that Jelena has chosen to skip
the doubles in South Carolina. Not that doubles is a bad
thing. It isn't. But after suffering through a series of
injuries this year that were at the very least exacerbated
by unwise decisions to push her body beyond reasonable
limits by playing unnecessary doubles matches, the choice is
proof that a discovery has been made. It appears as if
Jelena has managed to get her hands on an updated dictionary
(could it be Savo's doing, seeing that he might need it for
his schoolwork?), and finally realized the existence of the
word(s) "caution/cautious" (they're between "cauterize" and
"cavalcade," by the way). Who knows, maybe one of those
Australian tennis reporters managed to sneak in and rip out
the "d" section from the edition in the home Down Under...
or maybe it was some disgruntled Aussie publishing company
worker.
Whatever the cause for this breakthrough, it's significant
that Jelena now realizes that she sometimes might have to
pull up short in order to fight well another day. It's
better late than never, and greater smart than clever. By
realizing her limitations, she might just be able to improve
her prospects of meeting (and even exceeding) her own
expectations before 2002 is through.
*THIS WEEK*
Family Circle Cup, April 15-21
Charleston, South Carolina
Tier I - Green Clay
#4 seed - 2r: vs. Anna Smashnova
POINTS
W...275
RU..193
SF..124
QF..69
3r..38
2r..23
1r..1
-------------------------------------
THE DRIVE FOR #5
#4 Clijsters...leads by 324
#5 Davenport...leads by 253
#6 Seles.......leads by 217
#7 S.Williams..leads by 174
#8 Henin.......leads by 47
#9 JELENA......3086
*NOTES*
...Jelena exits Amelia Island closing in on #5, but staring
at some big points defenses in Europe over the next month
that will prove vital to her mission. At the moments, she's
#9 after falling to Waffle #2 in this weekend's A.I. SF in
what amounted to a battle for the #8 ranking. Henin's late
withdraw from Charleston means a return to #8 is all but
assured for Jelena next Monday
...After that, Jelena gets a week off as many of her WTA
counterparts take part in Fed Cup play, and then it's off
across the big pond for one of most important segments of
the 2002 season. What she does there will determine whether
she'll have any shot to reach #5 after Roland Garros (or
maybe before, if she could pull off another Tier I title/RU
in Charleston or Berlin, match her Hamburg '01 SF and then
head to Rome with a shot to defend her initial pro title
from a position of supreme seeding strength... quite a tough
task, but not out of the question for a player who's proven
an ability in the past to string together a handful of
superior tournament results)
...The European push begins in Charleston, though,
considering Jelena's 1r exit there in 2001 makes the Family
Circle Cup a potential free points extravaganza for her. A
great result this week sets her up rather nicely for seeding
purposes over the next few weeks. It could be the difference
between a #4 or #5 seed at a Tier I such as Berlin or Rome,
which could mean facing a Capriati or Seles in the SF rather
than the QF. As close as the #4-#9 ranked players are right
now, that one round difference might mean everything.
*SINGLES WALKOVER/RETIREMENT HISTORY*
97 Nuriootpa (challenger) 1r
...Keri Phebus 6-5, retired W
97 USTA Jr. Hardcourt Chsp. 3r
...Lindsay Dawaf - walkover W
99 Warsaw 2r
...Julie Halard-Decugis - walkover W
01 Hong Kong (exhibition) 1r
...Chanda Rubin 3-6,4-1,retired W
02 Paris Final
...Venus Williams - walkover L
02 Antwerp 2r
...Patty Schnyder 6-4,4-6,1-1, r. L
02 Sarasota SF
...Virginia Razzano 6-3,0-1, ret. W
02 Amelia Island SF
...Justine Henin 2-6,1-4, retired L
--------------------------------------
**PERSONAL HISTORY SPECIAL**
JELENA vs. ELENA DEMENTIEVA
...Why was it curtains for Dementieva after she won the 1st
set 6-0 on Saturday? Well, just look at Jelena's history
against her. Ever since Dementieva's come-from-behind SF win
to rob Jelena of a shot at an Olympic Gold Medal in Sydney,
Jelena has seemed to be on a personal mission to make the
Russian pay. Jelena has said that her Olympic experience was
her career high point, but it ended on a sour on-court note
(a loss to Seles in the Bronze Match). Apparently, Jelena
must still associate Dementieva with that memory, and she's
yet to extract her just revenge. Counting an exhibition
match in Hong Kong in January 2001, Jelena has since won
five straight in the rivalry, with four of the wins coming
after Dementieva took the opening set. So, maybe Dementieva,
always a better player when behind anyway, knew what was
coming when she raced out to that big lead.
JELENA vs. ELENA
98 RG (Girls) SF - 6-1,5-7,6-3 W
00 New Haven 1r - 4-6,3-6 L
00 Sydney Olympics SF - 6-2,4-6,4-6 L
01 Hong Kong (ex) SF - 3-6,6-3,6-4 W
01 New Haven 1r - 4-6,7-5,6-4 W
01 Moscow Final - 6-3,6-3 W
02 Paris QF - 5-7,6-1,6-2 W
02 Amelia Island QF - 0-6,7-6,6-1 W
--------------------------------------
**JELENA 2002 STATS**
*VS. TOP 10*
February
W...Monica Seles (#10)
L...Venus Williams (#2)-walkover
April
L...Justine Henin (#9)-retired
WEEK 15
AMELIA ISLAND
S: Venus Williams def. Justine Henin
D: Hantuchova/Sanchez Vicario def.
Carlsson-Svensson/Salerni
ESTORIL
S: Magui Serna def. Anca Barna
D: Bovina/Gubacsi def. Rittner/Vento-K.
PLAYER AWARDS
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Venus Williams
...her 3rd 2002 meeting with Henin in a final ended just
like the previous two, only this time Venus overcame a
2-6,0-4 hole
RISER: Magui Serna
...two finals in two weeks, but got her first WTA title in
Estoril
SURPRISE: Anca Barna
...at 24, Barna had never advanced past the QF in any WTA
event before her Estoril RU
VETERAN: Anne Kremer
...the 26-year old might be the luckiest player on tour this
year. She'd already faced Dokic while she was in various
states of physical disarray, then went to Amelia Island and
knocked off Jennifer Hopkins on an incorrectly lined court,
Amelie Mauresmo in her first match back after seven weeks
out, and Sandrine Testud the day after her 3-hour, 38-minute
match with Conchita Martinez. Then she met met Venus.
5-7,0-6. End of luck. Still, she's now #21 and rising.
NEW FACE: Dinara Safina
...Marat Safin's 15-year old sis made the Estoril SF,
defeating Martina Sucha, Miriam Oremans and Maja Matevzic
along way.
DOWNER: Daniela Hantuchova
...There were so many possibilities here this week: Mauresmo
lost her first match back, Kournikova lost in the 1r
(again), Sanchez Vicario said goodbye in the 2r along with
Shaughnessy, Dementieva blew yet another lead and Henin did
another her Jana Novotna impressions. But I'm picking
Hantuchova, who's still suffering a hangover from her Indian
Wells win. She's 0-2 since, though she did win the doubles
crown in A.I. (and turns 19 this week).
*MATCHES*
1.A.I. Final - Venus def. Henin
...Henin was up 6-2,4-0. Led 5-3 in the 3rd. Served for the
match twice. Was 2 points from the title on two occasions.
But she lost 6-2,5-7,6-7. Add this to her collapse against
Clijsters in the RG SF, and a rather ugly big-match pattern
is starting to develop.
2.A.I. 2r - Kremer def. Hopkins
...the service lines were drawn 1.5 feet short. The result:
29 DFs and a disputed Kremer win.
3.A.I. QF - Dokic def. Dementieva
...Jelena hasn't forgiven Elena for that loss in Sydney.
She's 5-0 since, with 4 wins coming after losing the 1st
set.
4.A.I. 2r - Kremer def. Mauresmo
...the earliest exit of a defending champ in A.I.'s 23-year
history.
5.A.I. 1r - Husarova def. Hantuchova
...0-2 since the record-breaking win in Indian Wells. By
comparison, Jelena followed up Rome with a 6-0,6-0 1r
victory at Roland Garros last May.
6.A.I. 2r - Dokic def. Pierce
...in 38 minutes.
7.Estoril 1r - Safina def. Sucha
...the 15-year old's Portugese roll began here.
8.A.I. 1r - Suarez d. Kournikova
...I said before the season started that we'd learn a great
deal about Kournikova this year as she tried to climb out of
the computer ranking pit. After a quick start, the results
have been pretty much atrocious. She hasn't won a match in
ages, yet keeps on showing up at big events where she gets
bad draws (she plays Conchita Martinez in Charleston) and
goes home early. She still won't "lower" herself and play
smaller events for much-needed points (she'd be a real
favorite in Budapest this week), yet uses the excuse that
she hasn't played enough matches to explain away her losing
streak. It won't work anymore, Anna. Maybe her detractors
were right and she doesn't (and will never) have the heart
or desire to make the most of her Top 10 talent.
9t.A.I. 2r - Dechy d. Sanchez Vicario
...what did I say about ASV maybe still having something
left?
10.A.I. 2r - Suarez def. Shaughnessy
...talk about a real sophomore slump.
-----------------------------------
WEEK 16 - April 15-21
PREDICTIONS
CHARLESTON - TIER I - GREEN CLAY
SF
Capriati def. Mauresmo
Seles def. Dokic
...Mauresmo failed to defend her A.I. title, and she gets
another shot to do so this week. If she loses early again,
she might wave goodbye to the Top 10. Being a Top 4 seed has
its advantages, and Jelena could reap the rewards this week.
Her biggest obstacle to the SF is Meghannn Shaughnessy, who
just can't seem to get anything going this season. If Seles'
rumored foot problems are true, Dokic (8-1 on clay) might be
the favorite to reach the final from the bottom half. By the
way, Seles is just 2-5 in SF in 2002 (with one of the losses
to Dokic).
FINAL
Capriati def. Seles
...JC is revving up for her RG defense.
BUDAPEST
SF
Sucha def. Black
Gubacsi def. Bovina
F
Sucha def. Gubacsi
...This is Gubacsi's hometown tournament, but Mr.Sweetness &
Light is on vacation in Sarasota (he HAD to make the trek to
the site of Jelena's moment of perfection) this week, so...
congrats to Martina S.!
MOST WTA FINALS
4...Venus Williams (4-0)
4...Martina Hingis (2-2)
3...Jennifer Capriati (1-2)
3...Justine Henin (0-3)
MOST WTA SF
7...Monica Seles (2-5)
6...Venus Williams (4-2)
BACK-TO-BACK WEEKS IN WTA FINALS
3...Jan/Feb - Martina Hingis (2-1)
2...Jan - Anna Smashnova (2-0)
2...Feb - Venus Williams (2-0)
2...Feb/Mar - Katarina Srebotnik (1-1)
2...Apr - Magui Serna (1-1)
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Article
by Todd Spiker