Article by Gerhard Grundhammer

ALEXANDRA STEVENSON PREVIEW

The Californian Girl Alexandra Stevenson is Jelenas quarterfinal opponent at Montreal, and both of their meetings before, had been quarterfinals, as well. The first time Jelena met the 1.85 meters tall girl was at Wimbledon 1999, and Alexandra stopped Jelenas brilliant run there, beating Jelena in three sets. Jelena had to wait then over 2 years to take revanche and it happened last autumm at Linz where Jelena won 6-3 and 7-5.

Reaching the semis at Wimbledon 1999, was also the by far biggest success for the current no34 of the world, at Grand Slams, and probably in her entire career as tennis-professional, because if you look at her statistics for any WTA-titles you find the number 0.

Earlier this year she played the best tennis of her career, which started as Jelenas in 1999. She reached the only final she ever reached at Memphis, had decent results at Scottsdale, Indian Wells and Key Biscane, beat Coetzer in round 2 of the Pan Pacific Open, though she had to play 3 qualifying rounds there, and only lost to Seles in round 3, and had the same result at Sydney, where she had to play 3 qualifiying rounds, too, and beat Tulyaganova and Capriati only to loose to Shaughnessy in round 3.

All that happened from january to march 2002, but after that her results went rather poor, highlighted by her 6-0 and 6-1 loss to Anna Kournikova two weeks ago, at her home town San Diego.

Montreal is certainly a highlight for her, comparing the results from the last few months. She beat A.Smashnova at the opening round 6-2 and 7-6 and Tanasugarn 6-3, 5-7 and 6-4 to proceed to the quarterfinal, and Jelena might well be warned: If Alexandra is on a run, she is able to beat almost everyone!

Last I found a funny note about her: Bobby Riggs, a former Wimbledon Champ who used to coach her at early stages of her career, used to entice Stevenson by putting $100 bills under cones on the court......

For those who are interested what Jelena said after the loss to Stevenson at Wimbledon 1999, though it happened more than 3 years ago, they can find her post-match interview at:
http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/dhbvg87/Interviews/990702.htm
Jelenas fan-site from Japan