Jelena Dokic wins Darmstadt title

Jelena Dokic defeated 7th seed Michelle Gerards from Netherlands 6-0 6-0 in yesterdays final in Darmstadt, Germany. This is Jelena's third ITF title this year.


Jelena now has a 32-7 W/L record for 2008 and is 11-1 in three set matches. Her ranking will now rise to approximately #179 which will make her the #5 Australian woman.



Ballbasher from the WTA Tennis Forum was there and wrote a report:

"Dokic-Gerards When they started the warm-up Jelena was very shaky and I already got a bit nervous. When the match started,Gerards won the toss and decided to serve.Jelena hit some good shots already nothing special but Michelle's balls were too short but Jelena had a few trouble to put them away at the beginning. Her service game started with 0-40 and I was scared,but then she started. All her serves already put Michelle under pressure and Jelena's shots were unbelievable no matter if she was on the run or not.She painted the lines all over the court making almost no erros and Michelle just tried to interrupt her with some high top-spins and I thought that would disturb Jelena,but it didn't at all.These were the balls that gave her the biggest advantage as she played them fast and well placed to the baseline giving Michelle almost no chance to attack Jelena.Jelena also hit some good dropshots and most of them completely surprised Michelle,while Jelena got both of her dropshots and made the point out of them.Also one of her passing shots was excellent she hardly got to the ball ,but she hit it right to forehand corner of Michelle,while she came to the net.Her serve kept working and she hit a few aces,but no more double fault.Also her net game was pretty good today and very consistent,she didn't make winners but forced Michelle to hit an error.Michelle's defensive game wasn't bad and she got quite a few of Jelena's balls back,but Jelena was far too consistent today for an opponent ranked around #300.Of course she hit a few unforced errors even more than Michelle I think,but no more than 10.,while her winners were around 25 I'd guess.Michelle had gps on two more occasions but these points were saved by clever play from Jelena just keeping the balls with less speed than normal but still enough to force an error out of Michelle.Jelena started both sets consistent,got better and the games to finish the set/match were her best ones,especially the one to finish the match. 15-0 Service Winner 30-0 Winner 40-0 Ace 6-0 6-0 Winner If she keeps the level of play her goal is more than reachable.And she was very happy at the ceremony kept smiling and her speech was truly wonderful thanking for the fair crowd even when she played Germans for the great organisation and the directors. Jelena hit just 1 Double Fault in the entire match and around 3/4 aces.Her winners were around 25 and her errors around 10 I'd say."

Images are courtesy of Ralf Reinecke. You can see the whole Jelena's album made by Ralf Reinecke from Darmstadt HERE.

And more tennis photos by Ralf Reinecke you can find HERE.


(source Ballbasher via WTA Tennis Forum)