Doubles
September 21 After losing the first set 5-7 to Italy's Rita Grande, Australian Jelena Dokic stormed back to win the last two sets 6-3, 6-3 in the second round of the women's tennis. Dokic seems to have put the distraction of her father's suspension behind her and is playing some of the best tennis of her up-and-down career. September 23 Australian teenager Jelena Dokic moved into the quarter-finals of the Olympic tennis tournament with a hard-fought 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 win over Paraguayan wild card Rossana De Los Rios today. Dokic's progress looked in doubt when she injured her ankle and fell behind 5-1 in the second set. The 17-year-old Wimbledon semi-finalist twice required on-court treatment from the tournament trainer and had to save two set points but overcame the injury to reel off six straight games to move within one win of at least a bronze medal playoff. The world No.34 will now meet the winner of tonight's match between South African seventh seed Amanda Coetzer and 16th seeded Belgian Sabine Appelmans. Brought to you by AAP September 24 Jelena Dokic finally gave Australia's tennis fans something to cheer about today when she beat South Africa's Amanda Coetzer to reach the semi-finals of the Olympic women's tennis tournament. The 17-year-old, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon this year, beat the seventh seeded Coetzer, 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 to give herself a great chance of securing an unexpected medal that would help make up for the early exit of men's stars Pat Rafter, Mark Philippoussis and Lleyton Hewitt. Dokic has nothing to fear from either of her possible semi-final opponents - 10th seeded Russian Elena Dementieva or Austria's Barbara Schett. Both girls are ranked higher than Dokic but neither of them have demonstrated her capacity to rise to the big occasion the way the Australian did at Wimbledon. "I said to myself if I can get through today I can get a medal," she said. "Now I'm even thinking about a silver. "The way I'm playing now I can win my next match." Whoever has to face Dokic knows she will also have to contend with a noisily partisan crowd that clearly gave the home favourite a shot of adrenalin on Sunday. "Its great," Dokic said of the support. "It can play a big factor in matches and for me its important. The bigger the crowd, the better for me." Monica Seles also advanced to the semi-finals, downing Belgium's Dominique Van Roost 6-0, 6-2, erasing the memory of a bitterly disappointing loss to Jana Novotna at the same stage in Atlanta four years ago. "I thought about it this morning when I woke up," Seles said. "But I said at least if I'm going to lose today I'm going to lose the right way, not like that." Seles, the third seed, was expecting to face Venus Williams - whom she has never beaten - in the semis. Williams first had to come through a tough semi-final against Spain's Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. In the men's singles, an astonishing run of upsets continued when Germany's Tommy Haas dumped sixth seed Alex Corretja of Spain out of the tournament 7-6 (9/7), 6-3. Haas advanced to a quarter-final clash with powerful Belarussian Max Mirnyi, who ousted Argentina's Mariano Zabaleta, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2. Corretja's defeat means only three of the 16 seeds - Gustavo Kuerten, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Juan Carlos Ferrero - have made it to the last eight of the tournament. They are all in the bottom half of the draw which means at least the silver medal will go to a non-seeded player. September 25 Jelena Dokic has bowed out of the gold medal race after losing to up-and-coming Russian Elena Dementieva. Dokic claimed the first set but was unable to maintain her form, the Russian winning 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. The Australian will now play US champion Monica Seles, who lost the other semi-final, for the bronze medal. Venus Williams defeated Seles in three sets: 6-1, 4-6, 6-3. Earlier, Frenchman Arnaud di Pasquale became the first player into the men's singles semi-finals when he beat Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-2, 6-1. In the women's doubles quarter-finals, Belgium's Dominique Van Roost and Els Callens defeated Venezuela's Maria Alejandra Vento and Milagros Sequera. September 26 While growing up in Yugoslavia she admired Monica Seles. When she joined the world tour she respected her fellow Serbian-born defector. Today Jelena Dokic was overwhelmed by the nine-time grand slam champion and former world number one as the resilient youngster failed in her gallant quest to win Australia's elusive first Olympic individual tennis medal. Dokic was outgunned 6-1 6-4 by Seles, the third seeded American citizen, in a bronze medal match lasting 59 minutes. The Australian number one appeared nervous in front of a large and expectant Centre Court crowd at Olympic Park as she dropped the first nine points of the match and trailed 3-0 in a twinkling to lose touch with Seles in the first set. The blistering groundstroke winners that have flown off Dokic's racquet all week were sailing long and wide, very long and wide. But few 17-year-olds rise to a challenge as well as Dokic and the Wimbledon semi-finalist gained in confidence after fending off a break point in the first game of the second set. Games continued to go with serve until the ninth game of the second set when Seles achieved the decisive break and then closed out the match. Dokic admitted she was powerless to turn back Seles, whose consistency and muscle eventually won over in an entertaining baseline slugfest. "I think I didn't play that badly today. I could have had a better first set but she didn't give me much," Dokic said. "She served very well which made it very hard for me to break and overall I think I did very well to stay with her. She hits the ball very hard. "It was very close in games, closer than the score shows." Dokic enjoyed the Olympic experience. "Regardless of whether I lost in the first round or won a gold medal, it was a great experience and there was a lot to learn from," Dokic said. Today's defeat ended a tumultuous fortnight for Dokic, whose great run at the Games followed the banning of her misbehaving father Damir from the WTA Tour. The ban comes into effect on October 2 but the former world No.1 junior heads to Tokyo next week, then Europe, and said her father and coach was still in her plans. "My mum will be with me when I go to a few tournaments and probably my dad as well and we'll maybe work off site," Dokic said. "That's what I'm planning to do, but I'm not sure." Seles' achievement today made up for a near miss by her late father Karolj, who was once a reserve triple jumper on the Hungarian Olympic team. "I'm just happy to have won a medal," said Seles, who admitted to being at her sharpest mentally of the week against Dokic. "I've never had a medal in my life and I had to fight for it. It was tough conditions and Jelena played unbelievably well." By DARREN WALTON [ Official Olympic Jelena Dokic Page ] -=+ THE END +=- |
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