Article by Pierre Cantin

As the match was about to start this morning, I was slowly scrolling through the French Open website and reading Justine Henin's post-match interview.. In my mind, she was one of the players that was assured to pass through a few rounds... Noto nly because she had an opponent ranked outside the top 150 but also because she is a very consistent player.. But no, she lost.. True, she was not at her best physically but I think it should still serve as a lesson for Jelena who has been struggling with consistency in 2002... She needed a strong performance in her first match against Emanuelle Gagliardi to get her confidence going a possible matchup with Conchita Martinez..

The match started off not so well as Jelena quickly slipped behind 3-0 and Gagliardi even had a chance to take a double break 4-0 lead... but she blew it and that is when Jelena took command.. getting more and more confident, she was able to limit errors while also putting away a few winners... A good comeback that ended up 6-4 in 42 minutes... True, 28 unforced errors (9 winners only) including 4 double faults (no aces) is not what exactly what we are looking for from Jelena but if she can get that feeling again, the one where even on a day where she's not playing her best, she can win those matches, it will be a very positive sign for the rest of the tournament...

After the 90 second break, the players were back on the court and Jelena gave a clear message breaking to open the second set.. that is when she needed to follow with a strong service game.. but instead, her serve broke down as Jelena served 4 double-faults in that game to be broken back (hard not to be when you give up so many points!).. it was 1-1.. Jelena then broke back as her game seemed to be back in place (except for second serve of course!).. She was hitting a lot more winners and as long as her first serve was in, she was in a good position... After getting a second break, Jelena was able to secure her serve and after a love game from Gagliardi, it was 3-2 Jelena leading with a break.. and from that point on, no problems for Jelena who finished off the match on a strong note... a 6-4, 6-2 win for Jelena, congratulations!:)

Next up for Jelena is either Conchita Martinez or Maria Elena Camerin.. Of course, it should be Conchita Martinez.. Never an easy match for sure but Jelena has won in their last 3 matchups so let's hope things go well.. more about that match soon!:)