JELENA ANTWERP SPECIAL:
LEARNING THE HARD (and Painful) WAY

by Todd Spiker

cau*tion (ko'shen) n... 1.Prudent forethought to minimize risk, or to avoid danger or harm.  2.A warning  3.(informal) v... To warn against danger, put on guard.


Such a simple word, but one that is noticably difficult for some world class athletes to learn.  Jelena Dokic is no different.  Six days in Europe proved that.

For every Williams sister who sometimes pulls out of a tournament with the slightest of ailments, causing many eyebrows to raise and questions to arise about their sincerity, there's a Dokic who almost blindly moves forward like a shark cutting through the water... an unstoppable force that chooses not to (or physically can't) take the time to rest.  It's an admirable trait, though an occasionally-foolhardy one.

Jelena might lurk in the deep waters, but she's no shark.  She CAN rest, and once in a while she MUST.  She should have done so in Paris last week, but didn't.  She ended up losing a shot in the final against Venus Williams in a walkover, the first in her pro career.  She should have done so in Antwerp this week, too, but didn't.  She was forced to retire in the 3rd set from her opening match there against Patty Schnyder (at 6-4,4-6,1-1), yet another first.  The questionable decision-making of the past week might be a passable risk at a grand slam, or in the season's closing weeks.  But in February, with a long season ahead where she'll need her health to accomplish her personal goals, it simply wasn't worth it... especially not when she admits to feeling that she was just 70% healthy in practice the day before the match.

Over the past few months, Jelena's learned quite a few on-court lessons the hard way, at the hands of the likes of Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport.  Her inspiring victory over Monica Seles last week seemed to show that she's absorbed the information and bettered herself as a result.  In Paris and Antwerp, she learned the hard way (again) what happens on the court when she fails to heed the call for caution off it.  In truth, it's probably a more difficult thing for her to accept than that 8-match losing streak to Top 10ers she endured last season.

You see, this isn't a tennis match.  Jelena's heart and mind can't overcome Jelena's body simply by working hard.  An injury situation isn't totally within her control.  She can have injuries treated, but she can't will them away.  She can't strive to improve them the same way she can her game's quickly evaporating sore points.  All she can pro-actively do is protect herself, and that often means not taking the court at all.  And anyone who's seen her play knows that that's simply not something that comes easily to her.  It's never been in her character to give in, give up or, even worse, simply walk away without a fight.  Even against Schnyder, she didn't do that.  Playing with wraps on both legs, she battled to overcome an 0-5 2nd set deficit before losing 4-6.  One last shot, one last bit of fight.  Two games later, she finally tearfully conceded that her body wasn't up to going any farther along what could have quickly become a very dangerous road.  That little bit of caution, better late than never, might go a very long way toward preventing a further derailing of this season of such great promise and potential.

Hopefully, it's a good sign (she's already confirmed that she'll be out "a few weeks for sure").  If there's anything that's been confirmed about Jelena over the last few months it's that while she doesn't learn hard lessons easily, she does eventually learn them.  She's never had a serious injury before in her career, so the last week has been another exercise in her continued tennis education, with this week's nugget of wisdom being that sometimes the most difficult and distasteful thing to do is ALSO, ironically, the right thing.

While she's disappointed and hurting now, that lesson will be something that -- one day, probably sooner than later -- Jelena will be more than glad to have learned over the course of the last six days in Europe.