NOTES ON A DRAW SHEET

Time for Kim to climb out of slump

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Fred Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

FROM THE BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC – L.A. Times Sports Editor Bill Dwyre calls the guys' summer hard court season the "dog days of men's tennis," a phrase that equally fits the women's tour, which is kicking off its U.S. swing in the pleasant climate at Stanford University.

Here, a number of notable woman are attempting to tie their shoes right before the U.S. Open and find some way – any way – to challenge the increasingly dominat Serena Williams.

Kim Clijsters – who is in the worst slump of her young career – will take the court on Tuesday night against the scrappy Meilen Tu , while her boyfriend, the virus-ridden Lleyton Hewitt, will watch from the sidelines instead of being where he belongs – in L.A. playing the Mercedes-Benz Cup. Defending champ Clijsters is a long way from the level she brought here in '01, when she scalded Lindsay Davenport in the final. She took two desultory early-round losses at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and is now complaining of Rafter-like soreness in her right arm, where she suffered a stress fracture early this year.

"Its been a tough balance of not being able to play and not trying to overwork the injury, but I feel good right now," said Clijsters, who is in the same quarter as heady Czech teen Daja Bedanova and the same semi as Davenport and No. 5 seed Jelena Dokic. Venus Williams, Monica Seles and Justine Henin are in the other half of the draw.

Clijsters needs to have a good five-week run up to the U.S. Open because she is seriously lacking in confidence right now. Both she and Henin appear to the only two women out there today with the physical and mental tools to challenge the Williams sisters and, given that Kim is the stronger of the two, it's high time she stepped up to the plate against and showed that no-fear attitude and dogged fight that she so admires in Hewitt.

DOKIC REFRESHED AFTER SHORT LAYOFF

Susan Mullane Camerawork USA, Inc.

After defeating American veteran Amy Frazier 6-3 7-5 to move into the second round, Dokic said she's still a little tired from all the on-court hours she put in over in Europe during the past four months. The Yugoslav took a week and a half off after she was rolled over by Slovak Daniela Hantuchova at Wimbledon and then hit the practice courts in Florida.

The 19-year-old has been showing flashes of brilliance for three years now, but seemingly every time she takes the court in a big match at a Slam, she folds, like she did against Jennifer Capriati in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros and her straight-set loss to Hantuchova in the fourth round of Wimbledon. While she's attempting to keep positive about her prospects, Dokic is still reeling a bit.

"I'm disappointed because those two matches could have been wins," said Dokic. "I had my chances. I need to learn to close out matches against the top players. But I have to take it as a learning experience. I'm a little tired mentally now but the season still has a long way to go and I'll have more opportunities."

TennisOne serving expert John Yandell noted how messed up Dokic's service motion is and there's no question that Jelena could get more oomph on the ball. Moreover, she needs to add a few more shots to her bag of tricks. While she is now effectively employing a drop shot, a serviceable volley would go a long way in improving her prospects, as would a coach traveling with her full time, whether it's her father, Damir, or someone else.

CONCHITA SHOWS IMPROVED FORM
It was nice to see former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez of Spain playing well again, as the 30-year-old gave two time NCAA champion Laura Granville of Stanford a lesson on how to use the whole court in a 6-3 6-3 victory. Ranked No. 74, Martinez needed a wild card to get into the tournament and made the most of it. Even though her potential retirement has been rumored for much of the year, Martinez said that she's motivated to hang around until she can regain her elite form again.

"I don't want to throw down my rackets because I'm injured or losing matches," she said. "Tonight, I played my game for the first time that I can remember this year. It was great to finally feel the ball again and know where my shots were going."
Martinez hasn't reached a quarterfinal this year and has been plagued by an Achilles injury and a chronically sore arm, no surprise given her Dan Quisenberry-like, submarine-style service motion.

But Conchita says she's in top shape now and is itching to regain her old form. "I still enjoy it," said Martinez, who will face Dokic in the next round. "Sometimes it's frustrating because I'm a perfectionist. I just need to work on getting my confidence back and I think it will."

Conchita's biggest problem besides her injuries is her stunning lack of confidence at closing time. She had Dokic on the ropes at Roland Garros this year but began to pull her punches and then fell in three sets. "It wasn't just that match, I've been doing that all year," Martinez said. "I'm looking for a way out of it."

No. 31-ranked Alexandra Stevenson continues to be one of the tour's biggest enigmas and showed it in her 7-6 (5), 6-4. defeat to Meilen Tu. "The key was if I could return her serve and make her play," said the No. 52 ranked Tu. "If I could limit her aces, then I felt pretty good. I tried to not let her control the points. I tried to get her on the run and dictate. Most of it is returning her serve and then everything else falls into place afterwards."

Alexandra hasn't had a big win since the spring and if she is to beat the label of being, as one-reader wrote, "a media-created fantasy," then she needs to go deep in a few tournaments prior to the Open. Making an impact at her hometown tournament – next week's Acura Classic at San Diego – would be a terrific place to start.