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 DAMN
THE TORPEDOES, JELENA GOES (GULP) FULL SPEED AHEAD...AGAIN
by Todd Spiker It's time for a brief recap. Let's see, ever since Jelena Dokic suffered the first injury of her tennis career on February 9 (the same day she defeated Monica Seles in the Paris SF), this is what she's done: 1)Rather than rest, she decided to play a doubles match later that day. The result: a loss, and a worsened injury that forced her to pull out of the singles final against Venus Williams. 2)Didn't take a week off, and instead headed to Antwerp. There, the pain of the torn abductor from Paris forced her to retire from her first match. 3)After (almost shockingly) sitting out two weeks, it was off to Indian Wells rather than rest up to assure good health for a points defense in Miami. She won her first match but injured her healthy leg in the 3rd set. The next day, she could barely practice. But she didn't pull out of the event, and played again anyway. The result: a (literally, and figuratively) painful straight set loss that included a 9-game losing streak to end the match. Dokic said she was less than 50% healthy for the match. 4)Again opting not to skip an event and give herself a full three weeks to get healthy for the upcoming clay court season, she now heads to Miami... tempting fate once again when a more serious injury could cripple her chances to defend the Tier I Rome title in two months time, and greatly effect her grand slam seeding soon after that. Hopefully, this won't be a decision she'll be sorry for a week from now. If I show up in this space in one week with a smile in my sentences (?) then Miss Dokic will have been right, while I will have been wrong to think that skipping Miami was the right way to go. I hope she makes me look to be a supremely overreacting sort. Hmmm... as I look at the Miami draw, I don't see anything horrific. Brandi or Weingartner in the 2r... not bad. Venus can't pop up until the QF. And... oh, no. Anne Kremer in the 3r? Jelena is already 0-2 against that woman in 2002. You don't believe in bad omens, do you? All right, forget I said that. Uh... let me think. (I've got to turn the forces of nature back a little before I go.) I've changed my mind. Going to Miami is a GREAT idea. It won't run Jelena's season off the road and into the ditch at all. In fact, it will be the moment that'll spark her vault to #5 before the start of Wimbledon. Venus... baby, you'd better watch out! (I hope that did the trick.) **** **** **** **** **NASDAQ 100 OPEN, March 19-31** *Miami, Florida, USA* *Tier I - Outdoor Hardcourt* *Dokic...#7 seed* *1st match (2r): vs. Kristina Brandi or Marlene Weingartner* POINTS TABLE W-325 RU-228 SF-146 QF-81 4r-45 3r-28 2r-16 1r-1 **THE DRIVE FOR #5** #3 Hingis...leads by 837 #4 Davenport...leads by 482 #5 Clijsters...leads by 401 #6 Seles...leads by 95 #7 Henin...leads by 17 #8 JELENA DOKIC...2974 #9 S.Williams...trails by 181 #10 Mauresmo...trails by 323 *NOTES* ...Jelena's #8 ranking once again was uneffected by another injury-related early round exit as Serena Williams slipped to #9 after losing 416 points by choosing not to defend her Indian Wells title (remember the controversial last-minute walkover win in the SF over sister Venus?), while Monica Seles rose to #6 despite her SF loss to Martina Hingis. Meanwhile, #4 Lindsay Davenport's injury layoff cost her another 111 points (cutting her lead over Dokic to less than 500) and Indian Wells '01 RU Kim Clijsters' 2r exit shaved 320 points from her total and dropped her ranking from #3 to #5. ...Miami (a Tier I QF in '01) presents Jelena with her initial major points defense of the season. It's the first of two such 2001 follow-ups (the other comes in early May, where she'll attempt to match a SF in Hamburg) she'll face before the full load of 300+ points from the Italian Open title is set to be removed from the WTA computer's calculations. As of now, the Top 10 position remains fairly secure, but that won't be the case much longer if this week's decision to play in the Nasdaq 100 begins another round of events in which her body lets her down. The esteemed status (and the seeding advantages that go with it, especially at RG and Wimbledon) is obviously something that another injury in Miami could very well put in severe danger. Let's hope she doesn't end up regretting this decision, too. *** *** *** *** *** *** **LISTS** *JELENA DOKIC - CAREER TIER I RESULTS** --YEARLY RECORDS-- 1999...1-1 2000...9-7 2001...20-5 2002...1-2 OVERALL...31-15 --TOURNAMENTS-- *1999* Toronto...2r (C.Martinez) *2000* Indian Wells...2r (C.Martinez) Miami...2r (C.Martinez) Hilton Head...QF (M.Pierce) Rome...QF (M.Seles) Montreal...1r (S.Appelmans) Zurich...2r (M.Hingis) Moscow...1r (A.Mauresmo) *2001* Miami...QF (V.Williams) Charleston...1r (I.Majoli) Berlin...2r (J.Capriati) ROME...WON (def. A.Mauresmo) Toronto...3r (M.Seles) MOSCOW...WON (def. E.Dementieva) Zurich...RU (L.Davenport) *2002* Tokyo...2r (A.Kremer) Indian Wells...3r (A.Kremer) Miami...?? *** *** *** *** *** *** **JELENA DOKIC & DANIELA HANTUCHOVA** *VITALS* AGES...Dokic (18), Hantuchova (18) BIRTHDATES...Dokic - April 12, 1983; Hantuchova - April 23, 1983 HEIGHT: Dokic 5-9 (1.75m), Hantuchova 5-11 (1.81m) WEIGHT: Dokic 132 (60kg), Hantuchova 123 (56kg) SINGLES RANK: #8 Dokic, #17 Hantuchova SINGLES 2001: #8 Dokic, #38 Hantuchova DOUBLES RANK: #10 Dokic, #14 Hantuchova SINGLES TITLES: Dokic (3),Hantuchova (1) SINGLES FINALS: Dokic (7),Hantuchova (1) DOUBLES TITLES: Dokic (1),Hantuchova (4) HEAD-TO-HEAD (Jr.): Dokic 1-0 HEAD-TO-HEAD (WTA): Hantuchova 1-0 *MEETINGS* 1998 World Super Jr. Chsp....FINAL Dokic 6-1,6-3 2001 Leipzig...2r Hantuchova 4-6,7-6,6-0 *NOTES* Daniela Hantuchova, this week's star in Indian Wells, is just 11 days younger than Jelena Dokic. But, until this weekend in California, Dokic's career had fairly well far outdistanced that of her teenage counterpart. That doesn't mean their paths haven't already crossed, though. In her last junior event, (in 1998,the year in which she was the Girls #1), Dokic defeated Hantuchova in the World Super Junior Championship in straight sets. Three years later, the two met for the first time as pros last September in Leipzig. It was then-#58 Hantuchova who had the last laugh that day as she pulled off a shocking-at-the-time 2r upset despite Dokic having served for the match at 6-4,6-5. Jelena's game collapsed at that point, and Hantuchova won the final eight games. The loss turned out to be Dokic's only defeat at the hands of a lesser-ranked player during the final three and a half months of 2001 (a span during which Jelena advanced to five finals, winning two titles). Obviously, it was a sign of great things to come for Hantuchova. Six months later, Saturday's victory over Martina Hingis crossed up Dokic once again. Not only did the Slovak match Jelena's feat of emerging victorious in her initial WTA singles final appearance (both doing so in Tier I's, no less), but she also knocked her out of the WTA record book. Ranked #26 going into Indian Wells (she's now #17), Hantuchova bested Jelena's record-breaking Rome title as the #23-ranked player last May to become the lowest-ranked woman to ever win a Tier I event. Stay tuned, because Hantuchova is already an accomplished doubles player, as well. She's up to #14 in those rankings and, considering Jelena's injury-related absence from doubles draws, there's a pretty good chance that it'll be Hantuchova who knocks Jelena out of the ranks of the double-Top 10ers (a club in which she's currently the sole member). She trails #10 Dokic by just 219 points. Jelena will certainly have Leipzig on her mind the next she sees the lanky teen on the other side of the net, and Hantuchova showed last week that she's only gotten better and more powerful since she won that match last Fall. Yes, it appears as if we could soon see the beginning of a very interesting little (new) rivalry. *LOWEST-RANKED TIER I CHAMPIONS* #26...Daniela Hantuchova ('02 Ind.Wells) #23...Jelena Dokic ('01 Rome) #21...Serena Williams ('99 Ind.Wells) **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **WTA REPORT...March 18, 2002*** *SINGLES TOP 20* 1.Jennifer Capriati...4767 2.Venus Williams...4616 3.Martina Hingis...3811 4.Lindsay Davenport...3456 5.Kim Clijsters...3375 6.Monica Seles...3069 7.Justine Henin...2991 8.JELENA DOKIC...2974 9.Serena Williams...2793 10.Amelie Mauresmo...2651 11.Sandrine Testud...2088 12.Silvia Farina Elia...1748 13.Meghannn Shaughnessy...1724 14.Arantxa Sanchez Vicario...1665 15.Elena Dementieva...1537 16.Nathalie Tauziat...1464 17.Daniela Hantuchova...1419 18.Amanda Coetzer...1363 19.Iroda Tulyaganova...1190 20.Maggie Maleeva...1186 **WEEK 10/11** INDIAN WELLS FINALS S: Daniela Hantuchova d. Martina Hingis D: Raymond/Stubbs d. Dementieva/Husarova PLAYER AWARDS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Daniela Hantuchova ...Looks like Hingis has found another tall hard-hitter who can push her around the court and frustrate her all day (she must be simply overjoyed). RISER: Daniela Hantuchova ...I said last week that I felt Hantuchova had a good chance to win this title, so I wasn't as surprised as some seemed to be this weekend when it actually happened. I was a bit taken aback with the ease with which she dispatched Hingis, though. She was calm throughout, and never let Hingis into the match en route to her first WTA singles title. Hantuchova opened 2002 ranked #38, and she's now already up to #17 and closing fast on players ranked as high as #12. Top 10 by the end of the year is a real possibility for this girl. SURPRISE: Arantxa Sanchez Vicario ...Maybe I spoke too soon. Apparently, the Bumblebee's wings haven't COMPLETELY shriveled up. A QF in I.W. showed that there's at least a shot Arantxa can stave off that doubles-only career a while longer. VETERAN: Monica Seles ...She made her season-best 6th SF of 2002, but once again lost to a Top 10 player. NEW FACE: Emmanuelle Gagliardi ...Ranked #70, she knocked off #57 Anna Smashnova to advance to a Tier I SF. That's what happens when Dokic, Clijsters and Henin all fail to live up to their seeds. DOWNER: Justine Henin ...The draw opened wide for her to win her first title of the year (she already had two by this time last season), but Hantuchova put a quick stop to that sort of talk. *MATCHES OF NOTE* 1.FINAL - Hantuchova def. Hingis ...THE young player of the season's first quarter. 2.SF - Hingis def. Seles ...Seles in 2-4 in SF in 2002. *NOTES* ...Venus Williams' absence from Indian Wells (the second part of the fallout from last year's controversy in California, as Serena also decided to stay home) enabled Jennifer Capriati to regain the #1 ranking. *** *** *** *** WEEK 12/13...March 19-31 MIAMI PREDICTIONS QUARTERFINALS Capriati def. Henin Seles def. Hantuchova Hingis def. S.Williams V.Williams def. Dokic ...The season hasn't exactly gone the way Waffle #2 would have preferred in 2002. The odds (and, more importantly, the draw) is stacked against a Hantuchova repeat of Indian Wells -- she might have to defeat Clijsters in the 4r just to get this far). Something tells me Serena will somehow avoid a SF matchup with her sister. Jelena lost in the QF to Venus here last year... but just getting this far without more calls for the trainer would be enough of a victory for now. SEMIFINALS Capriati def. Seles V.Williams def. Hingis ...Seles hasn't had great success against Top 10ers in 2002. Venus was the hottest player on tour before her recent rest. FINAL Capriati def. V.Williams ...Capriati loves Miami, and don't expect this battle for #1 to see her blow eight match points like she did against Venus in last year's Miami final (it ended up being the difference between Capriati being #2 instead of #1 for 2001). *WEEK 14...Apr.1-7* Porto, Portugal Sarasota, Florida *WEEK 15...Apr.8-14* Amelia Island, Florida Estoril, Portugal **LISTS** *YOUNGEST 2002 CHAMPIONS* 18y,11mo - Daniela Hantuchova (I.Wells) 20y,6 mo - Serena Williams (Scottsdale) *MOST WTA FINALS* 4...Hingis (2-2) 3...V.Williams (3-0) *MOST WTA SF* 6...Seles (2-4) 5...Hingis (4-1) 4...V.Williams (3-1) *WTA TIER I CHAMPIONS 2002* Feb...Tokyo - Martina Hingis Mar...Indian Wells - Daniela Hantuchova Mar...Miami - ?? *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *TDS RANKING LEADERS* 1.Martina Hingis...101 2t.Venus Williams...75 2t.Monica Seles...75 4.Jennifer Capriati...70 5t.Amelie Mauresmo...40 5t.Anna Smashnova...40 7.Daniela Hantuchova...38 8.Katarina Srebotnik...33 9.Justine Henin...32.5 10.Lisa Raymond...31 (#24 Jelena Dokic...11.5) |
