Jelena vs Davenport

by Pierre Cantin

Tough match ? You bet ! Impossible to accomplish ? Of course not! Although most of the time I start my previews by talking about what Jelena needs to do, this time, I think it rest more on the shoulders of Davenport..Say what ? Well, after 13 wins in a row including one against world #1 Jennifer Capriati and two against Jelena, no doubt that Lindsay will be heavily favourite in this match. 

And in case you think Lindsay might take Jelena lightly, I'm sorry to tell you to not count on that. First, Lindsay did have a few tough matches against Jelena in the past and that will be enough to not count on an easy match.. And the most important is that as of now, Lindsay still has a chance to end up #1 next week and conclude a second straight end-of-year #1 ranking in her career..

But can Jelena still win ? Of course! The most important key for Jelena is to force things on Lindsay's second serves. Sure, she will lose many points but in their last two matchups, Jelena was not able to put any pressure on Lindsay which resulted in easy holds and much more pressure for Jelena on her own serve. The second key is also to get a lot of first serves in. She might want to take a little pace off of her serve to avoid giving Lindsay too many chances on her second serve...With the way Lindsay is playing right now, there is no doubt that she is probably the most dominant returner at the moment and Jelena will need to get serves in there...