After a superb junior career that included Grand Slam titles, Mirjana Lucic was 15 when she won the first WTA event she played at Bol in 1997, becoming the fifth-youngest titlist in WTA history. In her next event, she was runner-up at Strasbourg. She defended her Bol title in 1998, the same year she rose to her career-high ranking of No.32. She was a semifinalist at Wimbledon in 1999, upsetting Monica Seles along the way. However, since then she has failed to reach the quarterfinals of a tournament, and did not even play in a WTA event from 2004 through 2006. She showed signs of a turnaround in 2010, though, finishing the year ranked No.105, her highest season-ending ranking since 1999.
Now, after winning three qualifying matches and then beating Christina McHale, 7-5 7-6(7), on Tuesday in Strasbourg, Lucic is into the second round of an event for the second time this year, having also gotten that far in Barcelona. It was her first win in three career meetings with McHale and she had to work for it, as she had a set point against her at 7-6 in the second set tie-break. Standing in her way of her first quarterfinal in almost 12 years is Jelena Dokic, the 2000 Wimbledon semifinalist who got as high as No.4 in the world and who won her first title in almost nine years at Kuala Lumpur in April.
As for the seeds, all of them other than No.3 seed Ana Ivanovic - who withdrew - are into the second round without having dropped a set. No.1 seed Marion Bartoli routed Kimiko Date-Krumm, 6-2 6-1, and No.2 seed Andrea Petkovic and No.3 seed Lucie Hradecka both beat qualifiers. Hradecka is enjoying a fine clay court season, having been runner-up in Barcelona and having won an ITF Women's Circuit event in Prague earlier this month.
In addition to Dokic against Lucic, Wednesday's schedule includes fourth-seeded Nadia Petrova versus Alizé Cornet.
EDIT - I would like to apologize, I formally said Lucic played Dokic in the 1999 Wimbledon QF, Dokic played fellow qualifier Alexandra Stevenson (losing 3-6 6-1 3-6) Lucic did make the SF that year where she lost to Setffi Graf 7-6 4-6 3-6, however she defeated 8th seeded Nathalie Tauziat not Dokic.
5 comments:
Lucic is a sad story :-(, I think if her idiot father hasn't screwed her the way he did she could be up there with Clijsters & so.
No need to apologize Captain it was almost 12 years ago. You were probably watching Pokemon with the lovely Clefairy then. :P I did went over to Wikipedia to check the results prior to your editing but I trusted you more than Wiki. ;) Now I'm going to start questioning everything you write hahaha :P
Besides the Fist Pumping Imbecile, the other Serbs JJ and Bojana also went down so Serb out, again.
Speaking of JJ she is having a tough clay court season (along with Vera Z. and The Duchess)on the surface where she has had the most success.
Disappointing to see The Princess struggle today she should have won this match in straight sets.
Marine, it is very very upsetting what happend to both Lucic and Dokic, they both had mental fathers that ruined thier careers really. However, Dokic enjoyed slightly more success that Lucic...still very sad for the two of them!
Carlos, that wes most probably the case! Ahh, I would have been like 9 then, it makes me feel so olddd! Ill be sure to double and tripple check from now on! :P
JJ has had a really bad clay season considering her prefrance for clay, and Aggie started well, but hasn't made any impact scince.
Captain you were at the, "Go play with your Barbies" age. :P
If you feel old tough I still feel like a teenager! Haha :P
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