Meghann SHAUGHNESSY

As i was looking up the world ranking position of Jelenas next opponent,
Meghannn Shaughnessy, i could not find her in the first place. First I was
looking at the top 15, next top 30, and then I finally found her at 38! The girl i have seen last year playing at the first round of the WTA-Championships! And my first thought was: What happened to the 1.80 meters tall girl?

Well, after she lost at the WTA-Championships to Jelena Dokic 7-6 and 6-2 (her second loss to the godness after she got beaten by Jelena 6-4 and 6-2 at the Princess Cup 2000) she prepared for the 2002 season and as she started in January it looked like she had done everything right. She reached the final of Sydney, beating Hantuchova, Stevenson and S.Williams (!!!!!), but lost the final to Martina Hingis in straight sets. An excellent tourny for a player outside the top 10. The desaster started at round 3 of the Australian Open where she got upset by the unseeded M. Weingartner, and she never really recovered from that loss until today.

Amongst the players she lost that year to, are as famous names as Mikaelian, Oremans, Bedanova, Irvin, Schwartz or Martinez-Granados, and so she lost her good position which avoided that she had to play the top-seeds at early stages of tournaments. Of course it doesn not mean that she has to play a top-seed at EVERY tournament in early stages, but thats what happened to Meghannn next: She played Dechy twice (Bahia & Berlin), also Capriati (S.Diego & the US-Open), and V. Williams (New Haven & Stanford) and lost all of those six matches. And if those draws would have not been bad enough she had to play the hottest, most talented and best looking girl on the tour at Strasbourg where she lost to 6-1 and 6-2, and has to deal with Jelena Dokic again, tomorrow.

Meghannn Shaughnessy is 23 years old, lives in Scotsdale, Florida, is a right handed player who prefers hard-courts, and has already captured 2 WTA-titles in her career (Quebec City 2001 and Shanghai 2000), and it looks like she cant continue her run, of winning one title a year in 2002. Partly of her poor play to medium talented players and partly of her bad luck at the draws.

The amerikan no9 has beaten Elena Likhovtseva today 6-3, 3-6 and 6-2 to advance to the second round of the Sparkassen Cup in East-Germany where she will loose to Jelena Dokic 6-? and 6-2, as there has never been a third set between them and Jelena has always won the second set 6-2!