Article by Todd Spiker

Upward...and Onward to the States
by Todd Spiker

With the month-long march to Flushing Meadow officially commencing in San Diego, Jelena's goal of reaching the Top 10 in time for the US Open has taken another step toward becoming a reality.

The latest WTA rankings reveal that Jelena has broken through the Top 20 barrier for the second time in 2001, vaulting over Amy Frazier and into the #20 slot.  The rebound in Sopot produced her fourth SF-or-better result of the season and she was rewarded with 96 big ranking points, at least momentarily putting to rest all those questions about whether or not she should have chosen to go to Poland in the first place.

Here's how the race stands as of now:

TOP 25 (July 30, 2001)
                            PTS.   (since 7/23)
1.Hingis               5577           0
2.Capriati            4439            0
3.V.Williams        4326       -271
4.Davenport         4321        -24
5.Clijsters            2851      +314
6.Henin               2689           0
7.Mauresmo        2429           0
8.S.Williams        2381           0
9.Tauziat             2035           0
10.Seles              1886          0
11.Dementieva    1885          0
12.Coetzer          1725          0
13.Maleeva         1689          0
14.Shaughnessy 1683     +138
15.Kournikova     1590     -133
16.Farina Elia     1509      +57
17.C.Martinez    1485          0
18.Sanchez V.   1408          0
19.Testud          1457       -28
20.JELENA        1441      +96
21.Huber           1358      +41
22.Frazier          1314      -43
23.Schett           1223         0
24.Tulyaganova  1092        0
25.Likhovtseva   1079        0

    Meanwhile, Jelena's doubles ranking jumped up to #19 after three
straight weeks at #20.


THIS WEEK...

*San Diego (Tier II) Points Table*
(not incl. potential "quality" points)
WIN    RU    SF    QF    3rd   2nd   1st
200    140    90     50      26     14      1

*In Jelena's Crosshairs*
#19 Testud              - 16 pts. behind
#18 Sanchez Vicario- 27 pts. behind
#17 C.Martinez       - 44 pts. behind
#16 Farina Elia       - 68 pts. behind
#15 Kournikova      - 149 pts. behind

*NOTES*
Jelena has zero points to defend from one year ago and, therefore, will gain ground on the field with every victory... It may enable her to finally surpass #15 Kournikova this week as Anna's long injury layoff could begin to impact her ranking.  Kournikova lost 133 points last week
and has 212 to defend from her SF run at San Diego '00... With #17 C.Martinez not playing this week, she'll lose 75 points and Jelena will
move past her doubles partner in singles... The other big points defense that could help Jelena this week is #19 Testud's attempt to match 83 points from a QF run at San Diego '00... Meanwhile, Jelena enters the week holding steady in the #10 position on the 2001 WTA Prize Money list, with a good shot to move to past Lisa Raymond to #9 with a good singles/doubles result at the Acura Classic.


THE NUMBERS...

*Time Capsule - July 31, 2000*
Jelena did not play.  Her singles rank was #39.


*Dokic - The Last 60 Days*
May 28       -    #19
June 11      -    #16
June 18      -    #16
June 25      -    #16
July 9         -    #23
July 16       -    #22
July 23       -    #21
July 30       -    #20


Good luck in San Diego, Jelena.

Until next time... tdsinusa@webtv.net