LEIPZIG PREVIEW

As Dokic enters the Leipzig tournament this week, she has a great chance to capitalize on last year’s defeat in the second round to the “up and coming” player of the year, Daniela Hantuchova (who is now currently ranked 11 in the world!). This should give her a great opportunity to jump back to number 4 in the world if she is able to make a solid semi-final or even final appearance, depending on who she has to play. Her draw is relative hard though as it has many players to whom she has lost to this year, including the following:

- Anastasia Myskina: seeded 6th here and beat Jelena in straight sets two weeks ago where she went on to win the title; possible QF opponent.
- Daja Bedanova: not seeded at this tournament but beat Jelena earlier this year in three sets at a warm-up Wimbledon event; shouldn’t pose a problem and is a possible 2nd round match.
- Silvia Farina Elia: seeded 7th here and has beaten Jelena earlier this year in a clay warm-up event at Strasbourg in three sets; possible semifinal opponent though very unlikely she will make it this far.
- Kim Clijsters: Probably Jelena’s biggest threat at this tournament considering she beat Jelena in three tough sets at Tokyo last week. However, she has not been able to repeat her success from last year and it wouldn’t surprise me if she was unable to defend this title, either going out to Nadia Petrova in the 2nd round of even Eleni Daniilidou in the QF. She also now holds a 4-1 head to head record against Jelena.

And if all things go well, her final opponent will probably be one of the following players:

Serena Williams: The current World Number 1 player, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open reigning champion; recently coming off a 3 set win in the final over Clijsters in the Tokyo tournament. She will probably make it through to the final unless Henin causes an upset in the semifinals. However, she will probably lose to Daniela Hantuchova in the QF.
Daniela Hantuchova: Last year she beat Jelena in this same tournament and luckily enough she is on the other side of the draw! Currently ranked 11 in the world and on the rise, she poses the biggest threat to Williams (Despite Serena thrashing her in straight sets at this years Wimbledon and US Open QF’s) and Jelena has a 0-3 head to head record against her, although she really should have beaten her at Wimbledon if it was not for that rain delay.

Her Second Round Opponent is either Elena Likhovtseva (Jelena has a comfortable record against her, beating her twice this year. Ranked # 44) or Meghannn Shaughnessy (see above). They are both really tough opponents and have had their Grand Slam “time to shine” periods with Likhovtseva having a QF appearance at the 2000 Australian Open (losing 9-7 in the third set to Spain’s slicing queen, Conchita Martinez) and Shaughnessy reaching the 4th round of both RG and Wimbledon in 2001. Since then, she is had a really bad year with her best result coming at the beginning of the year where she reached the final at the tier2 event, adidas international, where she lost in straight sets quite convincingly to hingis. Dokic also had a comfortable record against her holding a 3-0 record against her. Either players should not be a problem, especially shughnessy!

So if Jelena is playing well and is comfortable with her game, she could EASILY gain great quality points, secure that number four position again, as Seles is not playing this week, and who knows…..could even bring home the trophy!

GOOD LUCK JELENA!