Jelena 2001 Year in Review, Pt.IV
Setting the Stage
by Todd Spiker

As the first day of play at Flushing Meadows drew near, Jelena Dokic traveled across the Atlantic intent on taking advantage of a full schedule of tournaments on her favored hardcourts.  She'd ultimately find a mixed bag of results in North America, but would emerge a month later having learned another valuable lesson.  One that would come to define what remained of her 2001 season.

Playing every week leading into the US Open, Jelena's climb up the WTA rankings proceeded one position at a time even as her play swerved from brilliant to frustrating, then careened back again, sometimes during the course of a single game.  By the time the Open ended, she found herself on the cusp of the Top 10 for the very first time... but with some very substantial questions to be answered about her lack of results against the very Top 10ers she seemed destined to soon join.

In San Diego, she moved back into the Top 20, but fell to Top 10er Jennifer Capriati 4-6,2-6 (after leading 3-1 in the 1st set).  In Los Angeles, she rose to #15 but lost a wild match to Top 10er Nathalie Tauziat 0-6,6-0,2-6.

In Toronto, Dokic's streaky play continued as she labored to return some measure of consistency to her game.  Down 6-7,2-4 to Nadia Petrova in the 1st Round, she won by managing to win 11 of the final 13 games.  Against Magui Serna in the 2nd, she raced to a 6-1,5-0 lead before struggling to finally close out the second set 6-4.  In the 3rd, she failed to convert a series of early opportunities in a straight sets loss to Top 10er Monica Seles, but managed enough late fight to force a 2nd set TB after breaking Seles when she served for the match at 5-4.

The sporadic glimpses of Jelena's fabled determination that resurfaced in Toronto were a good sign, but her game had yet to fully awaken from its mid-summer slumber.  She left Canada as the world's new #14 (assuring her of a 14th seed at the US Open), but was still waiting for the win that would usher her around a significant career corner.  It was apparent that she was in obvious need of something bigger to stoke her confidence and propel her toward Flushing Meadows and beyond.  Off-court, trainer Mike Nishihara was brought aboard as as official member of Team Dokic, a move that would come to pay dividends as the season wound to a close.  The on-court spark would have to wait until later.

In New Haven, a rugged come-from-behind 1st Round victory over Elena Dementieva would prove to be the next sign of greater things ahead.  Down 4-6,4-5 with the Russian serving, two points from a straight sets victory, Dokic found a way to exert a will she'd been priming all season long.  She broke Dementieva and won the next two games to take the opening set 7-5, then went on to close out the 3rd with a service break for 6-4.  It was one of Dokic's most rousing wins of 2001, ranking side-by-side with the similarily back-from-the-dead victory over Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in Hamburg that had preceded her first singles title in Rome.  The week's work took her to #13, despite another tight loss to Capriati in a QF match in which Jelena was unable to convert one of six BPs on the American's serve at 4-4 in the 1st set (then was broken herself to lose 4-6).  It was her sixth consecutive loss to a Top 10 player since defeating Amelie Mauresmo in the Italian Open, and her 10th in the last 11 meetings against such players in 2001.

With the stinging disappointment of another Capriati loss fresh in her mind, Dokic arrived in New York for what would turn out to be yet another ride on a grand slam rollercoaster.

After having been "so close, but so far away" during her 6-7,0-6 4th Round loss to Serena Williams at the 2000 US Open, the 2001 tournament provided Dokic with an opportunity to show the tennis world just how much progress she'd made since coming to Flushing Meadows ranked #43 a year earlier (and exiting with Damir being levied a six-month ban from the tour because of his actions there).  Much like her previous late summer results, though, the final slam of the season turned out to be a case of "the good, the bad and the ugly"... with the ugly emerging as the unfortunate star of the fortnight.

The good:  a 3rd Round, 6-4,7-5 straight sets win over Sanchez Vicario (her conquerer in her 1999 US debut) after staging another 2nd set rally from 3-5 (with the Spaniard holding 2 SPs).  The bad:  an error-strewn (63 UE & 15 DFs!) 1st Round victory over #100 Adriana Serra-Zanetti in which Dokic took advantage of a break of serve courtesy of a bad line call in her favor at 3-3 in the 3rd set.  But it was the ugly that would be remembered from this event.

When Jelena learned that she would face #1-seeded Martina Hingis in the 4th Round (in her first-ever night match on Arthur Ashe Stadium Court), the stage seemed to be set for her to complete the grand slam circle that began with the then 16-year old's upset of the Swiss Miss at the '99 Wimbledon to first make her presence known on the WTA Tour.  Dokic stated that, unlike at RG, she hadn't been looking forward in the draw to the potential of a mouth-watering rematch, but admitted to being glad it had become a reality.  She seemed to relish the opportunity to prove herself again, enthusiastically showing no fear or hesitation.  In fact, she was nearly bubbling over with confidence.  With a power game well-made to bedevil the recently-beleaguered Hingis, her chances of victory seemed good.  Most thought she was ready to pull it off, including Dokic herself... which is what made the eventual loss so disheartening.

It wasn't the defeat itself that would persist, but the maddening way it happened.  After having said winning "the mental game" would be the key to the match, the mental backsteps would occur on Jelena's own side of the net.  Following a nagging pattern that had gradually developed since her fine January serving form, it was the breakdown of Dokic's serve game that would usher in a mid-match collapse.

After getting off to a quick start (up a break and 3-0), Jelena's serve percentage faltered to give Hingis an opening into the match (she broke Dokic for 3-2).  After having failed on three BP chances on Hingis' serve (including two second serves which she wildly overhit), Dokic was broken for 3-4 after a string of UEs, then blew two additional BP opportunities to fall behind 3-5.  Discouraged by her inability to win the big points, Dokic began to go for far too much to compensate... making the rest of the match a downhill ride on an avalanche of unforced errors (and accompanying forlorn expression that Dokic wore like a scarlet letter across her face).  Jelena was never able to recapture control of her game.

Before anyone knew it, 3-0 had become 4-6,0-6 as Hingis won 9 of the last 10 games, taking the 2nd set in 19 minutes as Dokic's 1st serve percentage fell to 43% and she was broken five consecutive times (as it was Dokic's serve, rather than the much-maligned one of Hingis, that proved to be the match's leading liability), and her 36 unforced errors accounted for 55% of Hingis' 66 total points.  12 of Dokic's 18 losses in 2001 to that point had come against Top 10 players, but her eighth consecutive rise in the rankings still brought her ever closer to joining that elite group for the first time as she settled in at a career-high of #12 following Flushing Meadows.

In the process of gradually raising the bar of success, it was clear that Jelena was not yet ready to make the next step.  That she admitted to being "surprised" that Hingis, still the world #1, had played so well only stressed the point even more.  Dokic was close, but still a bit farther away than she thought she was from reaching her goals when she arrived in New York.  Although she looked to be less than a month away from her first Top 10 ranking, it was apparent that her game still had flaws that needed to be worked out and that she had yet to adequately clear out the brain and life clutter that needed to disappear in order for her game to mature and move on the next level.

She still had time, though, to accomplish the task before the end of the year.  One thing was clear as the final leg of the season beckoned:  how angry Dokic was, and motivated to improve as quickly as possible, as a result of the Hingis loss would be the key to how long it would take for the final hard-learned grand slam lesson of 2001 to be transformed into hard-earned success.

Apparently, Dokic had smoke coming from her ears as she left New York... for she responded to the challenge by quickly proving herself to be an exceptional student in the closing months of the season.  Ironically, it was the Hingis loss that would turn out to be the elusive spark she'd been searching for since her victory in Rome.  The disappointments of Summer had set the stage for a potential Autumn breakthrough... and Jelena was finally ready to step back into the spotlight.


THIS WEEKEND--
Jelena 2001 Year in Review, Pt.V:
"A Starring Role... and a Catalyst for Change"
NEXT WEEK--
Jelena 2001 Year in Review, Pt.VI:
2001 Overview/2002 Preview
IN TWO WEEKS--
WTA 2002: The Top 10 Stories to Watch


*AUGUST '01 RESULTS*
-SINGLES-
--AUGUST--
San Diego - 3r - def. by Jennifer Capriati
Los Angeles - 3r - def. by Nathalie Tauziat
Toronto - 3r - def. by Monica Seles
New Haven - QF - def. by Jennifer Capriati
US Open - 4r - def. by Martina Hingis

-DOUBLES-
San Diego w/ Patricia Tarabini
...QF - lost to Clijsters/Sugiyama
Los Angeles w/ Anne-Gaelle Sidot
...QF - lost to Arendt/Vis
New Haven w/ Nadia Petrova
...RU - lost to Black/Likhovtseva
US Open w/ Nadia Petrova
...2r - lost to Krizan/Srebotnik
US Open Mixed w/ Mahesh Bhupathi
...1r - lost to W.Black/C.Black


*END OF MONTH RANKINGS*
SINGLES
Aug.27 -- #13
DOUBLES
Aug.27 -- #14


*MONTHLY PRIZE MONEY TOTALS*
August:  $53,125
(2001 total up to Aug.27:  $505,366)