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Rising star blocking Dokic's return

2K views 55 replies 40 participants last post by  Dominic 
#1 ·
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17570323%255E23216,00.html

Rising star blocking Dokic's return

December 14, 2005


JELENA Dokic has drawn rising tennis star Beti Sekulovski in the first round of the Australian Open wildcard play-off starting Friday.

Dokic must not only dispatch the 22-year-old Victorian ranked four places above her but also win a further three matches if she is to earn a place in the Australian Open main competition.

Altogether 16 players line up in each of the men's and women's play-offs to play each other in three-set elimination matches until only one of each is left standing to win the prized wildcards.

Sekulovski will be no pushover and is one of the toughest in the draw.
She was one of the in-form players on the recent Kia Pro Circuit, reaching the final of Challengers in Rockhampton and Canberra and has improved her world ranking from 830 in mid-September to 344.

Former world number four Dokic is back in the country to rebuild her career and reputation after her ex-manager father Damir notoriously turned his back on Australia and took the family overseas in 2001.


The Australian Open will be the first competition she has played in this country since her much-publicised departure.

Dokic has publicly stated that she wants to represent Australia again and Tennis Australia recently said the door was still open to the young star.

The 22-year-old is currently ranked 349 and has had no major success since reaching the semi-finals of Wimbledon in 2000.

In the men's wildcard playoff Australia Davis Cup representatives Peter Luczak and Todd Reid will play Adam Feeney and Alun Jones respectively. The play-offs run from 16-19 December at Melbourne Park while the Australian Open will be played from January 6-13 at Canberra International.
 
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#3 ·
Tough.Best of luck to Jelena anyway.I have faith :yeah:
 
#8 ·
Wipe the floor with this girl Jelena!! I want at least 1 Bagel or Breadstick!
 
#9 ·
It seems to me that it's Sekulovski's who's gotten a bad draw. Without Dokic, she'd have been considered one of the favorites. So she draws a former world #4 who Aussie Sam Stosur says is hitting the ball better than her.
 
#13 ·
AO Wildcard PlayOff
A feast of top matches at AO Wildcard Play-Off
December 14, 2005

Jelena Dokic’s first competitive outing in Australia will be against Victorian Beti Sekulovski on Friday.



Dokic, formerly ranked No.4 in the world but now sitting at No.349, has been taking part in the Australian Open Training Camp at Melbourne Park, which culimates in a Play-Off Tournament for a main draw wildcard into Australian Open 2006.

Sekulovski, who has shown strong form on the Kia Pro Circuit this year, currently sits above Dokic at No.344, the 10th ranked highest ranked Australian woman on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings.

In other matches on Friday, top seed Lauren Breadmore (VIC, No.266) has drawn Trudi Musgrave (NSW, 497), top Aussie juniors Daniella Dominikovic (NSW) and Shayna McDowell (QLD) face off, Christina Wheeler (VIC, 310) plays Monique Adamczak (NSW, 355) and Olivia Lukaszewicz (SA, 552) plays Victorian Cindy Watson (325).

In the men’s tournament, top seed Peter Luczak (145) plays Adam Feeney (NSW, 730), second seed Nathan Healey (NSW, 241) takes on Raphael Durek (NSW, 438) and last year’s winner Marc Kimmich (QLD, 306) is up against Sadik Kadir (NSW, 531).

Click below for the full draws.

Still vying for a place in the Play-Off are a handful of rising Aussies who will take part in a qualifying round at Melbourne Park on Thursday, December 15, from 10am.

They are:
Court 4 - Scott Doerner vs Carsten Ball
Court 5 - Adriana Szili vs Lisa D'Amelio
Court 6 - Nick Lindahl vs Andrew Coelho

Main Draw action gets underway at 10am on Friday and finishes Monday, December 19.

Location: Melbourne Park, Western Courts
Time: 10.00am on the 16th and 19th
11.00am on the 17th and 18th



AO Wildcard Play-Off Draw
 
#14 ·
if THIS is a tough draw, then she shouldn't be in the australian open in the first place. im a big fan, but let's just hope she takes care of business. if she's been playing as well as people say she's been, she should win her matches here rather easily and turn up the heat in the main draw.
 
#20 ·
DaNieLa RoCkZ said:
I want at least 1 Bagel or Breadstick!

For Beti? :haha:



Good luck Jelena. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.
 
#21 ·
This draw is WACK

Why does top seed Lauren Breadmore have to win 4 matches to get the WC while Olivia Lukaszewicz only has to win 3? :mad:
 
#22 ·
I think its good for Jelena, if she loses to a player ranked outside the top 300 she knows she still has a lot to improve before attempting a more serious comeback...
 
#24 ·
pierce0415 said:
This draw is WACK

Why does top seed Lauren Breadmore have to win 4 matches to get the WC while Olivia Lukaszewicz only has to win 3? :mad:
:confused:

It's a 16 player draw...they all will have to win 4 matches.

(Olivia won't even win one though).

I'll be very surprised if Jelena wins this match. Sure, at their best, Beti is no match for her...not even in the same class, but at this point in time this was definitely one of the worst draws Jelena could have gotten here. Beti is a new player this year - completely rejuvenated, and having seen her play several times, she will not go down without a fight.
 
#25 ·
I think you guys are completely underestimating Jelena. Even at her worst moments this year, she was still playing like a top 200 or 250 player. The only reason this isn't evident is because she was playing tour events regularly. When somebody who's a top 250 player plays someone inside the top 100, they will lose just about every time. When Jelena dropped down to challengers for a couple months, she was having competitive matches win or lose with the girls ranked between 150-250. Jelena's form has fallen, but not to the point where she'll be losing matches like this IMO. The only person she has to worry about IMO is Lauren Breadmore because Lauren will stay out there and knock every ball back for hours...and we know Jelena isn't in the best match shape right now. The longer that match goes, the more screwed Jelena will be.

That being said, Beti is better than her ranking. She simply hasn't had the financial resources to travel extensively and only played 12 tournaments this year. If she were to play a full schedule, she'd be around the 200 mark probably. Jelena needs to be on her game or she won't make it through, but I'm predicting a close 7-6 6-3 win for Dokic.
 
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