Article by Todd Spiker

**JELENA CORNER**

by Todd Spiker


**L.A. POINTS BREAKDOWN**
88...SF
10...2r: Pisnik (#45) - 6-3,6-2
10...3r: Husarova (#40) - 4-0, ret.
10...QF: Grande (#36) - 6-4,6-1
0...SF: Rubin (#21) - 0-6,26
118...TOTAL
-100...POINTS OFF
+18...TOTAL FOR WEEK

#5...SINGLES RANK (3246)
#6...SANEX POINTS RACE (1997)
#21...DOUBLES RANK (1303)


I guess we all knew that was coming, didn't we?

Everyone knows that Jelena plays far too much.  Early in the year, her refusal to rest cost her weeks of effective play as she dangerously tried to play through various leg injuries.  The effect of her overloaded schedule seemed to come to a head two weekends ago with her tired performance in the San Diego Final against Venus Williams.  But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

There was a fear coming into L.A. that Jelena's momentum and confidence might be overridden by her oncoming exhaustion and her body's unwillingness to cooperate with her overloaded schedule.  As it turned out, that's exactly what happened.

In the early going in L.A., Jelena complained of being tired and having the flu.  She still won, though, as a good draw and a quick 3r match (Janette Husarova retired after four games) got her through to the SF, and a wonderful pairing with Kim Clijsters produced some of the best doubles results Jelena has seen in her pro career.  One could argue the intelligence of pulling double-duty this past week, but the results seemed to pan out and prove her decision a good one... then came Chanda Rubin.  That was when Jelena crashed headfirst into the proverbial wall.

Essentially, Jelena didn't show up for her SF match.  She lost the 1st set 0-6, was broken early in the 2nd and decided to pack things in (the match lasted just 41 minutes).  Maybe it was the prospect of a ridiculously obtuse schedule that might have forced her to play four matches in less than 24 hours in the tournament's closing days that caused her to subconsciously throw up her hands and go on a walkabout.  Rubin called it "semi-tank mode," and the booing L.A. crowd seemed to agree.  It's hard to disagree with either, but to call what happened a complete surprise would be to blindly look past the obvious warning signs that preceded.  For her part, Jelena pointed to her exhaustion and illnesses and that she couldn't give even 10% (a new low for the always percentage-conscious Jelena... just a tip, maybe she should stop giving her percentage of effort whenever one of these kinds of losses takes place) physically or mentally after the on-court battles and off-court viruses she's faced over the past two weeks.  No matter the cause of it all, it made her L.A experience a decidedly mixed bag.

Mixed because she DID salve some wounds by claiming the doubles title with Clijsters, their first as a team since their junior days in 1998, as they knocked off the #1 and #2 seeded teams (and sentimental crowd favorite Corina Morariu, with Kimberly Po-Messerli) along the way.  The pair will team again in Montreal this week... a move maybe even more questionable than last week's.

So as Jelena heads to Canada for yet another round of battles on all fronts, everyone holds their collective breath that a L.A. repeat isn't in the cards.  With a #5 ranking, and QF, SF and RU results to boast of in her pre-US Open North American tour so far, one hopes that this will be the last time we see Jelena before play begins at Flushing Meadows.  At this point, even with the #4 ranking just out of reach and 100 points to be defended in New Haven, the decision to take a week off (hinted at by Jelena in San Diego) is no longer an option.  It's a must.  Hopefully, it won't be a case of too little too late.

As for Montreal... root for Jelena's best, but keep an eye on how much success now will hamper more of it in the coming weeks.  The Open awaits, and a rundown Jelena will do no one -- least of all her -- any good.


 

--KNOCKING ON THE DOOR--

 

As the idle Monica Seles will be unable to defend her 199 Montreal points, Jelena's grasping for the #4 ranking will likely come to fruitition this week if she is able to hold her #3 seed and advance to at least the SF for the third straight week.  With the US Open seeds being based on the rankings following this week's event, a #4 rank would be the difference between her being a #5 or #6 seed (since Davenport will get an injury exemption seed ahead of Jelena)... not that big a difference since the luck of Flushing Meadows' singles draw will sport the same feast-or-famine odds for either slot.

For a brief moment, it appeared that Jelena might be able to catch #3 Jennifer Capriati and possibly be able to seize a #4 seed in New York.  But Rubin's defeat of Serena Williams in L.A. (and the squashing of a potential 100-quality point haul that would have come with an upset of the #1 player), combined with Jelena's going-down-in-flames act in the SF, pretty much put an end to that.

As it now stands, Capriati leads Jelena by 754 points.  The American defends 252 in Montreal (Jelena just 69), 148 in New Haven (Jelena 100, if she chooses to play) and 402 at the Open (Jelena 146).  So, the right combination of results over the next month very well could push Jelena to #3 following Flushing Meadows, but it's not going to happen before she arrives in New York.


 

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**JELENA'S BEST CAREER DOUBLES RESULTS**
CHAMPION
01 Hong Kong Exhib. (Barabanschikova)
01 Linz (Petrova)
02 Sarasota (Likhovtseva)
02 Los Angeles (Clijsters)
RUNNER-UP
99 Tokyo PC (Coetzer)
01 Roland Garros (C.Martinez)
01 New Haven (Petrova)


**JELENA'S 2002 RESULTS BY TIER**
7-2...Grand Slams
4-6...Tier I
18-8...Tier II
8-1...Tier III
5-0...Tier IV


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LOS ANGELES (II-Hardcourt)
S: Chanda Rubin def. Lindsay Davenport
D: Clijsters/DOKIC def. Hantuchova/Sugiyama

HELSINKI (IV-Red Clay)
S: Svetlana Kuznetsova d. Denisa Chladkova
D: Kuznetsova/Sanchez Vicario d. Bes/MJ Martinez

 

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Chanda Rubin
...at 26, Rubin's L.A. title gives her two singles crowns in a season for the first time in her career.  Her consecutive trio of wins that included Serena-Dokic-Davenport will be hard for anyone to top, too.

RISER: Eleni Daniilidou
...Daniilidou's pre-Wimbledon grasscourt success moved to the North American hardcourts with her upset of Daniela Hantuchova.

SURPRISE: Denisa Chladkova
...the Czech made her third career WTA singles final in Helsinki, but failed to make off with her first title.

VETERAN: Ai Sugiyama
...for the second straight week, Sugiyama made noise.  Last week, she knocked off Hantuchova.  This week it was Capriati.

NEW FACE: Svetlana Kuznetsova
...another week, another Russian teen wins her first WTA singles crown.  This time it was 17-year old Kuznetsova, who overcame a 0-6 1st set to defeat Chladkova in Helsinki.  Then, she took the doubles title with Sanchez Vicario, too.

DOWNER: Daniela Hantuchova
...she's 0-3 in WTA matches since defeating Dokic at Wimbledon.  If this keeps up, those favorable comparisons to Kournikova might start to turn nasty.


 

1.LA Final - Rubin d. Davenport
...Davenport served for the match in the 2nd set, but Rubin battled back to win in three for her first victory over Davenport since 1995.

2.Helsinki Final - Kuznetsova d. Chladkova
...Kuznetsova became the second under-18 Russian girl (Dinara Safina was the other) to win her first WTA singles title in the past three weeks.

3.LA UPSETS: Srebotnik d. Clijsters (2r), Rubin d. Serena (QF), Sugiyama d. Capriati (QF)
...and a #12 seed won the title.

4.LA 2r - Daniilidou d. Hantuchova
...Hantuchova is upset early again, this time in straight sets.

5.LA 1r - Krasnoroutskaya d. Widjaja
...another Russian teen, but this one's finally coming back from an injury that derailed what was expected to be a breakthrough season.

HM-Morariu's LA Doubles Run
...One week after returning to the tour, Morariu (with Kimberly Po-Messerli) advanced all the way to the LA Doubles SF.

 

...Hingis, who has entered Montreal and New Haven, will seek a wild card into the US Open.

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--PREDICTIONS--

MONTREAL, QUEBEC (TIER I-Hardcourt)
QF
Serena d. Mauresmo
Clijsters d. Dementieva
Dokic d. Fernandez
Capriati d. Daniilidou
SF
Serena d. Clijsters
Capriati d. Dokic
F
Serena d. Capriati
...Serena stumbled in Los Angeles.  What are the chances she does it two weeks in a row?  Exactly.

*WEEK 34*
New Haven, Connecticut
WTT Final - Sacramento vs. NY Buzz

*WEEK 35/36*
US Open

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**MOST WTA SINGLES TITLES**
6...Venus Williams
5...Serena Williams
3...Anna Smashnova
2...JELENA DOKIC
2...Monica Seles
2...Martina Hingis
2...Chanda Rubin

**MOST WTA SF*
11...Venus Williams (9-2)
8...JELENA DOKIC (5-3)
8...Monica Seles (3-5)
7...Serena Williams (6-1)
7...Justine Henin (5-2)
7...Jennifer Capriati (3-4)

**SINGLES/DOUBLES CHAMPION IN EVENT**
April...JELENA DOKIC (Sarasota)
July...Serena Williams (Wimbledon)
July...Patricia Wartusch (Casablanca)
August...Svetlana Kuznetsova (Helsinki)

**YOUNGEST SINGLES CHAMPIONS**
16yr3mo...Dinara Safina (Sopot)
17yr1mo...Myriam Casanova (Brussels)
17yr1mo3wk...Svetlana Kuznetsova (Helsinki)

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**TDS RANKINGS - WEEK 32**
1.Venus Williams...210
2.Serena Williams...205
3.Jennifer Capriati...140
4.Monica Seles...125
5.Martina Hingis...108
6.Justine Henin...107.5
7.JELENA DOKIC...105.5
8.Anna Smashnova...70
9.Daniela Hantuchova...69
10.Kim Clijsters...62
11.Chanda Rubin...61
12.Amelie Mauresmo...60
13.Lisa Raymond...59
14.Paola Suarez...52.5
15.Elena Dementieva...44.5