Hot stuff: Jelena Dokic, back for good?

The career of Jelena Dokic, who climbed to a career-high ranking of world No.4 in 2002 and was a Wimbledon semi-finalist, has been in freefall in the last three years.
Dokic's tennis career has been beset with family issues but she is confident the worst is behind her. The 24-year-old has no rankings points and an arbitrary computer ranking of 9999 after her sabbatical. These years Dokic has collected different coaches, training academies and even nationalities. But all her attemps to comeback were unsuccessful. She just hitted the newspapers with stories which include attacks by croatian fans, a car crash and even a kidnap claim by her father.

Now based in Melbourne, Dokic has begun a gruelling practice regime. She has been on court for up to four hours a day, six days a week at Melbourne Park. "I needed some time away from the game to sort through some personal issues but now I'm back and very focused.I've been working very hard in training and I'm hopeful that things turn out well. I'd like to think that by the end of 2008 I could be somewhere in the top 50. I know that's something I can do."


And this time it looks comeback might be more successful. Her physical condition seems much better and she seems to be finding her game again. At Hobart International, she has scored her first WTA victory since May'05 after beating WTA #54 Martina Muller in 1st round. Earlier she had already defeated Evgenia Linetskaya, Yvonne Meusburger (WTA 65) and Yaroslava Shvedova (WTA 84) in qualifying. Finally she retired in 2nd round match against Flavia Pennetta due to an ankle sprain, but she might be fit to play Australian Open qualies on Thursday. She will have a difficult match against Marina Erakovic, a semifinalist last week on Auckland.

We sincerely wish a successful comeback for Jelena this time.