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Preview; Miami; Quarterfinal Round
Match Preview Kim Clijsters (3) vs Jelena Dokic (9) Head To Head: 4-2 By Naomi C Kim Clijsters (3): Round 1: BYE Round 2: Defeated Cho 6-2 6-2 Roound 3: Defeated Suarez 6-2 6-2 Round 4: Defeated Pistolesi 6-1 6-1 Jelena Dokic (9): Round 1: BYE Round2: Defeated Kuznetsova 7-6 6-1 Round 3: Defeated Dechy 6-3 6-2 Round 4: Defeated Molik 6-1 6-4 Kim Clijsters and her former doubles partner Jelena Dokic have met on 6 occasions in WTA matches; Kim has been victorious on 4 of those occasions and has been able to win their last two meetings. However, their matches have traditionally been nail biters, particularly their first professional WTA meeting which Dokic won 9-7 in the third set in the Fed Cup in 2000. They have played twice before on hard courts, both times in Tokyo and they are one win a piece, with Kim recording a victory the last time in three sets last September. Kim and Jelena have known each other a long time; in fact they won the 1998 Junior French Open doubles crown together. Both players therefore know each others games extremely well and hence there will be no surprises with that tactics employed in this one. Quite simply whoever hits the hardest, executes their shots the most accurate, serves at the higher percentage and covers the court the better, will win. Dokic has not been experiencing her best year on tour so far in 2003, but has been working very hard to improve her game with her new coach and it is was only going to be a matter of time before the 19 year old turned it around. She has managed to do that in Miami by recording straight sets victories over Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nathalie Dechy and Alicia Molik. However, while Kuznetsova, Dechy and Molik are all fantastic players they are not of the same caliber as Kim, who is in the best form of her life and currently possess what she lacked throughout the middle of last year, confidence. Kim is a confidence player when she is confident she is hot when she isn’t confident she will struggle through her matches. Kim will have to start extremely well and confident against Dokic, as Dokic is known front runner. Once Dokic wins the first set her confidence increases and she has the mentality to record a victory in fact in her junior career Dokic was an amazing 65-0 when she won the first set. By winning the first set Kim’s chances of victory in the match will therefore significantly improve. While Dokic may currently be ranked at number 9 and yet to pass the quarter finals in an event this year she is a proven performer on the big stage and has amassed 5 tournament victories in her career so far. Two of those came last year at lower tier event in Birmingham and Sarasota but Dokic has also captured two tier 1 events in Rome and Moscow both in 2001. So therefore while struggling early this season Dokic is a proven performer who will significantly trouble and perhaps even upset Kim as she has in the past. Dokic has also recorded victories over every current member of the top 10 except Serena Williams, Daniela Hantuchova and Lindsay Davenport. Therefore Kim is going to have to execute near flawless tennis to be victorious in this match. With the surprise elimination of number 2 Venus Williams to Meghannn Shaughnessy in the 4th round it is now mathematically possible for Kim to reach the number 2 rank if she wins the event. This match is now just one more stepping stone onto another possible milestone in Kim’s career. Heopefully Kim won’t feel the pressure and both girls will be able to compete at their best level and produce, like they normally do a thriller! Prediction: Again, I am not
going to predict as I don’t want to jinx Kim! :). Visit the Kim Clijsters page here
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