Jelena moves to final!

By Pierre Cantin
Date: 27/10/2001

Very good win today for Jelena against Iroda Tulyaganova in the semifinals of Linz. The match did get to 3 sets but Jelena simply shut down the door when that came leaving Tulyaganova no chance to make it back...

The match started off with Jelena serving and how do you think she started off ? Yes, a double-fault. Now, with Iroda's serves being so good, Jelena needed to serve very well today so it certainly wasn't the best way to start out. Tulyaganova was putting a lot of pressure on Jelena's serve and was able to break early for a 1-0 lead. Then, Jelena was able to reply with a break of her own. She hit her first dropshot, a shot that proved to be very useful today against a very powerful baseline opponent. Then, Jelena held her serve easily and broke Iroda's serve right after to take a 3-1 lead and certainly a good option on that first set. Jelena followed up with an easy service hold...But then Iroda improved the level of her game while Jelena missed a few shots and seemed to be on the defensive a lot..it was now 4-2. Jelena however returned to her best level and finished off that first set 6-2.

Jelena was once again to start first in the next set, she was able to hold and Iroda too... Iroda had certainly served better in that game giving her a little confidence on her serve. And she took on to Jelena's serve and was able to break Jelena's serve and hold her own to take a 3-1 lead. They then won their next serves up to the point where Iroda was unable to finish off Jelena and got broken to put the score at 4-4... But she broke right after and then easily held serve to take the second set 6-4.

But getting Jelena to three sets and actually beating her in 3 sets is a whole other story and Tulyaganova saw that. From the moment that set started, Jelena played consistent powerful tennis and had no problems at all on her serve while she put a lot of pressure on Iroda's who was unable to cope with it...Pretty soon, Jelena had a 4-0, two break lead and the match was pretty much over, within a few minutes, Jelena had earned a pass to the final, a 6-2, 4-6, 6-0 win..

Next up Jelena will probably face Lindsay Davenport who faces Magdalena Maleeva first. Davenport has been playing outstanding tennis lately and it's not out of luck that she won 10 straight matches including her final last week against Jelena. But that could play in Jelena's favour as she will not have much pressure and could only cause an upset..let's hope things go well!