US Open 1999 Conclusion
^{by Alain Desmier}

Well I certainly wanted to be writing a longer tournament report than this, but at the end of the day I feel it was inevitable.

Jelena Dokic fresh from her incredible run at Wimbledon against Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the Spanish warrior.

If I had to sum up this match in just one word it would be, frustrating. Jelena at one stage was 4-1 up and looked to be cruising to another seed crushing victory. Jelena was playing with the might and courage that had earned her a quarterfinal spot at Wimbledon. Vicario was being beaten to every ball, until Arantxa decided enough was enough and brought the score back to 4-4. Jelena's confidence suddenly disappeared and she won a very shaky service game before Vicario again levelled the score at 5-5.

Arantxa turned on the style and won the next two games to win the set. It was not all over and my mind turned to the Kremer match at Wimbledon when Jelena came back from a set down to win the game. I prayed for a repeat, but it was not to be.

The first game set the mood for the set, Jelena losing her service game!

Vicario cruised to the set 6-1 and really Jelena never even deserved to come close to the gritty Spaniard.

Jelena had 45 unforced errors, that is to say, balls that Jelena simply didn't mange to return to Vicario in play. That kind of figure is not good enough to win anything, never mind a first round grand slam match. Not only was it the unforced errors that were cause for concern but the fact that Jelena won only 29% of possible points on her second serve. I am sure Jelena will be the first one to hold her hand up and take full blame, however she must realise that unforced errors are no good to anyone and fix the problem. I don't thinks its confidence, maybe nerves or pressure.

This is not a disaster, there is no need to panic, as I have said many times before Jelena is still young, she lacks tennis experience that, Vicario, one of the best players in the world has bags and bags of. (Vicario also has a face that would scare any man!).

The critics will now of course say that Wimbledon was a one hit wonder for Miss Dokic, but Jelena needs to take that in her stride.

She now knows, after playing and losing to Martinez and Vicario what she has to aim for.

I never really expected Jelena to do that well here, 4th round if she was lucky, the Australian open is were the fireworks will really happen. On home soil, Jelena's potential is massive. She has two more tournaments in Tokyo and Stuttgart before having a rest and taking on the world all over again. Her ranking will drop to maybe 50th or beyond, but as longs as she stays in the top 100, she'll be fine to qualify automatically for the Aus open.

ALAIN DESMIER (adesmier@hotmail.com)

This report was written by Alain Desmier for Pierre Cantin for "jelena-dokic.com".

Used under permission by 'jelenadokic.org'.

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