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Click here for next NEWS ARCHIVE July - Oct 2001


29th December 2001

Early reports from Australia indicate a bad start to the New season for Jana with a first round qualifying loss to Valentina Sassi of Italy 6-3 6-1 at the THALGO Womens Hardcourt Championships..

Jana was top seed for qualifying here, and was unlucky not to get straight into the Main draw.

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18th November 2001

* Jana's Year 2001 *

Jana is somewhat unlucky to finish the 2001 season at No 71 in the World Rankings. Just 5 more points would have put her up to 67.
She started the year at No 66, so her year-end rank looks disappointing.
However in 2001 Jana reached her highest ever ranking of No 43 in the world in May, breaking into the Top 50 for the first time in her career. In many respects Jana is also now in a much better position to improve her ranking than she was this time last year when she had a lot of points to defend at the Australian Open following her 4th Round exit the previous year.

In 2001 Jana had a poor start to her Australian season, losing a close 3 set match with hard-hitting Top-Twenty regular, Sandrine Testud in the first round of the Canberra tournament, before losing to Denisa Chladkova in Round One of the Australian Open. This hit her ranking points hard, and she sank into the 80s.
In Oklahoma in February, Jana had her first big win of the year serving 9 aces to beat Ai Sugijama, going on to beat Daja Bedanova at Indian Wells.

In April Jana entered the Estoril tournament in Portugal and reached the Semi-Final, for her best tournament result of the year, beating another Top Twenty Player in Magdalena Maleeva and seeded Tatiana Garbin before losing to Elena Bovina. Jana had to qualify for the Berlin Tournament, which she did beating, Oremans, Lagostera and Boogert in a sequence of 3-set matches, before losing to Justine Henin.

May brought Jana's best singles win of the year, and perhaps of her career so far when she defeated world No 5, Amelie Mauresmo in the first round of the French Open at Roland Garros. It was a shattering loss for Amelie, ending an amazing sequence of victories for her. But Jana's win was well-deserved, following some excellently thought-out and well executed attacking play. She reached No 43 that week.

Jana's grass season was not the best. She lost at Birmingham and S'Hertogenbosch, before achieving a first round win against Medina-Garriguez at Wimbledon, losing in the second round to Patty Schnyder. She had a minor wrist injury and missed some tournaments before going to the USA in July for the hardcourt season. After a good start at Stanford, beating another Top 20 player, Amy Frazier, to reach the quarter-finals, before losing to Lindsay Davenport, Jana gained her 2nd highest ranking of 44.

The next week at San Diego Jana lost a very close 2nd round match with Jelena Dokic 6-7 5-7. Then suddenly, everything went wrong with her season. From then on Jana experienced a succession of harsh draws and first round losses to tough opponents. Jana played some good tennis, including a long three setter against Chanda Rubin at the US Open, but always ended up on the losing end. By the Autumn Jana seemed to have lost the habit of winning, and her losses continued falling to Anna Kournikova in November as her ranking sank to 71.

This ranking does not reflect Jana's ability, as shown by the hard matches she gave to Top Twenty players all through the year. Perhaps Jana suffered from her preference for competing in the toughest Tier 1 and 2 tournaments, and not picking up the easier victories (and ranking points) available in the weaker Tier 3 and 4 tournaments. Next year more points are to be given to the tougher tournaments so such a strategy may bring better results in future.

Jana celebrated her 25th birthday in style in Leipzig in September, receiving a cake and other gifts from the tournament organisers. She has set herself a goal of reaching the top 30 in 2002. Even though currently ranked 71, it would take only a very few points to send her shooting back up the rankings. In addition with the retirement of Anke Huber, the race for the German No 1 spot will be wide open, so she has everything to play for in January.

All in all then, 2001 has not been a bad year for Jana.

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5th November 2001

Jana Not to Play Pattaya

Jana has withdrawn from the Volvo Open tournament in Pattaya Thailand that she was scheduled to play this week. A large number of players have withdrawn from this season-ending tournament, including top seed Jelena Dokic.
The withdrawal is not unexpected following the cancellation of the twin WTA tournament in Indonesia due to political unrest. Players feel that the round-trip journey to Thailand is too arduous for one Tier V tournament.
Unfortunately this means that Jana will finish the year ranked in the 70s, which is a disappointment after her earlier successes.

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23rd October 2001

Another Defeat

Jana has not won a Main Draw match since July.
Another first round loss today, this time to Anna Kournikova, 4-6 5-7.
Jana has provided Anna Kournikova with her first victory since February. Anna went on to beat Daniela Hantuchova before losing to Kim Clijsters.
When will Jana start winning again?

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21st October 2001

Luxemburg Open

At the SEAT Luxemburg Open Jana has a place in the main draw.
She is scheduled to meet 5th Seed Anna Kournikova in the 1st Round.