----------------------------------------------------------------------
HeraldTribune.com: Sarasota: Story 

TENNIS / Sarasota Open


Dokic captures straight-sets win over Martinez
posted 04/02/02  

By MIC HUBER
mic.huber@heraldtribune.com


SARASOTA -- Damir Dokic moved up to the top row of the west stands, pulled out a 
cigar and gave it a light. 

His talented daughter had just broken Conchita Martinez to get to 5-5 in the 
second set and moments later she would complete a run of four straight games to 
wrap up a 6-2, 7-5 win over the former Wimbledon champion in an unfortunate 
first-round match in the $140,000 Sarasota Open being played at The Meadows 
Country Club. 

"I always smoke. I am very nervous," Damir Dokic said. But at 5-5, with Jelena 
Dokic taking control of the match, this smoke served as a victory cigar. 

Damir Dokic had seen his 18-year-old daughter survive a lapse in the middle of 
the second set to rip off the final four games of the match to dispatch a tennis 
legend and move into the second round of this first-year tournament. 

"For my first match here, I was really happy the way I played," said Dokic, who 
is ranked No. 9 in the world and is the top-seeded player here this week. 
She had to play well because she drew one of the toughest players on clay and a 
player who has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the world. 

Someone had to go and Dokic, who has been battling injuries this year, bore down 
at the critical time of the match to make sure it was Martinez. 

"It was tougher, I think, than it looked," Dokic said about the 1-hour, 
11-minute match. "It is always tough to play her, especially on clay. She plays 
so well on clay. If I didn't play as well, it would have been a little tougher." 

Dokic's win brought an end to the first day of singles play and set up today's 
matches, which include appearances by Sarasota's Mary Pierce, second-seeded 
Meghann Shaughnessy and fourth-seeded Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. 

Play begins at 11 a.m. and will continue throughout the afternoon. Highlighting 
the afternoon session is a match between Pierce, who is beginning a comeback 
from a series of injuries, and Ai Sugiyama at 1 p.m. That match will be followed 
by a match between Jennifer Hopkins and Shaughnessy, now ranked No. 13 in the 
world. 

The night session is topped by a match between third-seeded Arantxa 
Sanchez-Vicario, currently ranked No. 14 in the world, and Janette Husarova. 

Dokic took care of business fairly quickly, despite a loss of focus in the 
second set that allowed Martinez to take a 5-3 lead. But Dokic bore down to hold 
serve to stay in the set then broke Martinez's serve to even the set at 5-5. 

"I had a little bit of a lapse of concentration but she played a lot better in 
the second set," Dokic said. "She was a little more aggressive and went for 
shots she didn't go for in the first set. 

"I was really calm, which helps because I knew she lifted her game up a little 
bit and I just had to get back on track." 

A series of leg injuries have prevented Dokic from getting in many matches in 
the last couple of months, but she found enough toughness Monday to gain control 
and let her father breathe a little easier. 

"The focus was to hold serve at 3-5," she said. "If can hold serve I knew, if I 
can stay focused at 4-5, I could break. And, if I could break, I would be back 
in it. I held serve pretty easy and that helped I played really good last four 
or five games." 

While Dokic has broken into the top 10, it is still seldom that she is a 
tournament's No. 1 seed. With the top seed goes a little bit of extra pressure, 
but she appeared calm in her match against a player she has played doubles with 
in the past. 

Dokic, who reached the fourth round at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open this 
past year and the semifinals at Wimbledon in 2000, beat Martinez for the second 
straight time after losing to her the first five times they played. 

It didn't take long for Patty Schnyder to wrap up the first win in the main 
draw. The 23-year-old from Switzerland blitzed American Lilia Osterloh in just 
48 minutes. Schnyder led 6-0, 5-0 before wrapping up a 6-0, 6-1 win. 

Schnyder, ranked as high as No. 8 in the world in 1999, has won seven 
professional events. 

The tournament also got an early start with a pair of doubles matches Monday and 
local favorite Nicole Arendt had to work hard to get past the first round. 
Arendt and Liezel Huber, who reached the semifinals last week at the Nasdaq-100 
in Key Biscayne, were extended by Alexandra Fusai and Caoline Vis before taking 
a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win. 

Arendt, a former University of Florida player, played Word TeamTennis for teams 
in Bradenton and Sarasota in the mid-1990s. 

Four players advanced to the main draw by winning final-round qualifying matches 
Monday and two of the players who lost reached the main draw as "Lucky Losers," 
filling spots vacated by a pair of players who pulled out late because of 
injuries. 

Among the qualifying winners was Anna Smashnova, who found herself having to 
qualify for "the first time in about three years" because of the strength of the 
field. 

Marissa Irvin and Virginie Razzano lost their qualifying matches but got in 
because of late withdrawals by Iroda Tulyagnova and Anne Kremer. 
 

heraldtribune.com
Serving the Herald-Tribune newspaper and SNN Channel 6 

----------------------------------------------------------------------