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Article written by Glyn James Toray Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo.Let the real season begin: This week marks Jelena's first competitive tennis tournament since the LA Championships back in November. After taking a much needed and well deserved long break, missing the trip to Australia in the process, Jelena is finally back and hungry for glory. The Toray Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo is the first tournament on the agenda. The tournament is a Tier I tournament with a total of $1,300,000 on offer for prize money. The tennis itself will be played inside the beautiful Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, on the indoor carpet surface (or more specifically: Toray Spuckturf TS-5), which is not particularly Jelena's favourite surface. The tournament, like every other tournament, has a hefty amount of sponsors. The main ones include Wilson tennis balls, New Balance training shoes and the Saison credit card. Toshio Noji is the tournament director. Jelena and Tokyo: Jelena also began last year's season at this event, her first appearance at the Toray Pan Pacific Open. Unfortunately it was somewhat of an anti climax. After receiving a first round bye, Jelena came up against her 2002 thorn in the side, Luxemberg's Anne Kremer. Jelena found it extremely difficult to adapt to the fast surface after such a long spell out and was under prepared coming into the tournament. Kremer marked one of the finest victories of her career by ousting the Yugoslav starlet with a 7-5 6-2 shock scoreline. Irrespective of this loss, Jelena's popularity in Japan has soared. Ever since winning the Toyota Princess Cup (also in Japan), Jelena has featured in several Japanese tennis magazines, and she's had some animated drawings of her made and published in Japanese magazines. Her superstar status is rivalled only by some other Russian tennis player who is ranked in the thirties. The Draw: Jelena is the number two seed in the draw. Monica Seles leads the way as the number one seed, whilst Lindsay Davenport and Chanda Rubin make up the rest of the top four. The other big names include Magdalena Maleeva, and Russian beauty Elena Dementieva. Here's how the draw shapes up:
The draw was never going to be frighteningly difficult, but Jelena was always going to come up against Lindsay Davenport in the semi finals (should they both win their respective first two matches). Probable second round opponent Angelique Widjaja has indeed shown signs of becoming a quality player. The 18 year old took a WTA title in November in Pattaya, albeit a Tier V. A possible meeting with Maleeva in the next round could prove to be the ideal stepping stone before facing Jelena's career thorn in the side, Lindsay Davenport. Davenport is still yet to find her form since coming back from her long term injury, and certainly hasn't got the fearing impact she once had. In the upper half of the draw we could see Bovina coming a long way, although the likely finalist will be either Monica Seles or Chanda Rubin. Conclusion: Jelena has had a somewhat positive off season. Despite the very minor break in her right ankle, which forced her out of the Collins Cup exhibition, Jelena has signed a new short term contract with legendary coach Heinz Gunthardt, and perhaps more importantly, this contract has the blessing of Jelena's father, the sometimes irreverent Damir Dokic, who labels Gunthardt as the best coach in the world. To get to the point, Jelena's camp is a happy one right now, and with that unrivalled raw talent being nurtured somewhat, we can expect great things for 2003. Whether the impact will be immediate is another matter altogether. We can expect a better performance than last year though, that much is almost certain. Prediction: 1RD - Bye. 2RD - Jelena def. Widjaja in straights. QF - Dokic def. Maleeva in three. SF - Davenport def. Dokic in straights. F - Davenport def. Rubin in straights. |
