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NOTES ON A DRAW SHEET
Dokic avoids choke in three-set
win over Martinez
Spadea's comeback; the Tennis bin Laden
Quote of the Year
By
Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net
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Susan
Mullane
Camerawork USA, Inc.
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FROM ROLAND GARROS –
One of the most underrated parts of watching a Grand Slam up close
is that you can wander off to a secondary court and observe the
youngsters shaking and quaking, trying to avoid a a hair-raising
choke. Some might interpret this as a sadomasochist's theater, but
part of the satisfaction of the exercise is when a star in the making
actually beats back his or her own demons and pulls through.
That was the case with Jelena
Dokic on Thursday, when out on Court 2 she nearly hung herself against
wily veteran Conchita Martinez. Coming into the match, Dokic had
taken down Conchita twice on clay this year and should have been
brimming with confidence, but she clearly wasn't, falling into Conchita's
barbed wire traps and losing the first set, and then needing five
set points to close out the second.
In a match that somewhat resembled
her stunning loss to Petra Mandula in the fourth round last year
here, Dokic sucked it up and ousted 2000 finalist Martinez 3-6 7-6
6-2 in the second round.
Recall that last year Dokic
was playing the best tennis of anyone in the first week and it appeared
that she would hiss and bludgeon her way to the final. Then she
went out of Court Centrale against Mandula and was a ghost of herself.
You could her her anxious, rapid fire breaths from the top of the
stadium.
It was much the same story
for a good part of her match against Martinez: One minute, she was
the "white cobra, hissing and spitting with venom while she
slung a low missile down the line. The next minute, she was "Jelena
the salamander," scurrying away when the predator got too close.
Dokic nearly blew the match in the second set when she failed to
serve it out at 5-4 after she dumped a forehand into the net at
set point. She was then broken back to 5-5 when she careened a backhand
crosscourt wide.
But the tall blonde Yugoslav
continued to battle and in the tiebreaker jumped out to a 6-4 lead
behind a series of blistering groundstrokes. But Dokic couldn't
hold the fort when she committed two straight unforced errors to
6-6. On the next point though, she creamed a two-handed backhand
down the line for a winner. However, Dokic then dumped another forehand
into the net. But undeterred, she ripped a crosscourt forehand winner
and then on her fifth set point, played a beautiful drop shot, passing
shot combination to grab the second set. The No. 7 seed leapt in
the air in delight. She stepped on Conchita in the third set and
the 19-year-old Dokic will now meet Elena Likhovtseva of Russia
in the third round.
"I had a letdown here
last year," Dokic said. "I looked too far ahead and lost
my focus. For me, especially that this is my first Grand Slam of
the year, I'm just happy to win a match or two and then see what
happens. I have nothing to lose. I'm expected to win these match
anyway and I'd like to go into a match this way. It's really tough
at a Grand Slam. I don't have a real goal right now of how well
to do."
Not to put any undue pressure
on Jelena, but her draw has opened up again. Should she beat Likhovtseva,
she'll have a golden opportunity in the fourth round, because both
seeds, Meghann Shaughnessy (no surprise here) and Anastasia Myskina
(big surprise there) lost in the first round. She'll get the pleasure
of facing either Katerina Srebotnik or Emilie Loit. Time to start
salivating.
Spadea's comeback
Because I have a tendency to focus on losses, let's give it up for
Vince Spadea, who he fought off two match points and stunned Adrian
Voinea, 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 7-6 (4) 8-6. Spadea and No. 4 seed Andre
Agassi are the only two American men left in the draw.
Few men have fallen faster
than Vinny, who after reaching a career high ranking of No. 19 in
September of 1999, went into a downward spiral that saw him finish
'00 ranked No. 229. Who can forget his 21-match losing streak, that
he finally ended when he upset a hobbled Greg Rusedski at '00 Wimbledon.
Spadea has always been a strange
guy and has had more than a few bizarre characters in his camp,
including his authoritarian dad. But give a guy his due: He's spent
much of the past two years playing Challengers and hadn't won a
regular tour match coming into Roland Garros, where over the past
two days, he's won two three-hour plus five-setters in a row, one
over Cedric Pioline and other over Voinea.
Here's an important lesson
for those of you always fiddling with your games: Spadea said the
key to his fall was that he felt he had peaked once he reached the
top 20 and needed to change his game if he was going to progress
further. Big mistake.
"I was playing with a
certain style and instead of building on that, I reassessed my whole
game," he said. "I questioned every stroke and everything
I was doing. Once I hit rock bottom, I knew I had to go back to
my basics and then try to build from there again."
For more on Spadea, log on
to USTA.com
and read my column – please.
Spadea now has a Court Centrale date with James Blake conqueror,
Sebastien Grosjean on Saturday.
The Tennis bin Laden Quote of
the Year
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Susan
Mullane
Camerawork USA, Inc.
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To me, for telling my colleagues
yesterday after I saw J.C. Ferrero being carried into the locker
room crying with what looked like a tournament ending ankle injury
that there was no way he could play today. He did and beat Nicolas
Coutelot in five. Coutelot was enraged by the reports. "I'm
very disappointed by the press. I'm very angry and I say to those
who made this stupid thing, it was a lie. It's like you said bin
Laden was dead, it's not true." As slight overstatement, no?
Not so well known men to watch
on Saturday: David Nalbandian,Guillermo
Coria, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Paradorn Srichpahn.
Not so well known women to watch:
Vera Zvonareva, Anniko Kapros and Janette Husarova.
The I Told You Dept:
Didn't we say that Chanda Rubin would beat Barbara Schett? We bet
Babs is glad now that she blew off Fed Cup. Of course, we also picked
Henman over Malisse. The truth is, we were just trying to give our
new British correspondent, Alix Ramsay, a pat on the back.
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