Belgrade, Serbia, to host a WTA tournament

The Partizan Tennis Club and Serbian Tennis Association will organize a WTA event in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2012. Prize money will be $220,000. The exact date of the tournament is still under consideration, but it will take place just before the French Open or US Open.

Participation of Serbian tennis stars Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Bojana Jovanovski is expected, as well as of former Serbian representative, now an Australian national, Jelena Dokic, who has reconciled with her family, primarily with her father Damir who lives in Serbia. (source: Blic)

Jelena Dokic back in Serbia, reconciles with father

After all the drama that had happened, it comes as a surprise that Jelena Dokic and her father Damir are again in good relations and he will even coach her, alongside another coach, a woman from Tennis Australia. Damir believes that women’s tennis is weak right now, which offers an ideal opportunity for his daughter to get back to the top.

The former world No.4 Dokic is in Serbia after a long period of deliberation (about two years), enjoying her settled private and professional life. Time heals all wounds, and after a lot of family talks, Jelena’s relationship with father Damir is better than ever, and a great week is behind them now. Dokic’s priorities in life come in this order: family, health and tennis.

"In order to be successful in career, any career, you have to have a settled private life, which has finally happened to me," said the Australian, who has a great desire to enrich her tennis résumé.

Dokic’s goal is to finish 2012 in Top 20, while her long-term goal is to reach the Top 10 and play a Grand Slam final. The 28-year-old is encouraged by the trend of Grand Slam finals being won by more experienced, older players.

Next tournament for Dokic is the Generali Ladies Linz, which starts October 10.

Here you can watch Dokic's interview in Serbian. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Roberta Vinci beats Jelena Dokic to win Unicef Open

Roberta Vinci edged Jelena Dokic 6-7(7) 6-3 7-5 in the final of two 28-year-olds on the grass of the Unicef Open.

The 30th-ranked Vinci is now an impressive 5-1 in WTA career finals. Her previous four titles have been Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, Luxembourg and Bogota.

En route to the trophy Vinci pulled of upsets of third-seeded Yanina Wickmayer and fifth-seeded Dominika Cibulkova. The former world No.4 Dokic also caused an upset, in the second round against Flavia Pennetta. (photo via Unicef Open)

Dokic better than Pennetta at Unicef Open

Jelena Dokic made Flavia Pennetta the sole seeded player to lose on Wednesday at the Unicef Open. The 59th-ranked Australian defeated the fourth-seeded Pennetta 6-3 6-4 for the second straight-set victory at the tournament (in the first round she beat Alla Kudryavtseva 6-0 6-4).

The former world No.4 Dokic is not a stranger to grass. She played the semifinals of Wimbledon in 2000 and she won on the grass of Birmingham in 2002. In the quarterfinals of the Unicef Open Dokic will meet Johanna Larsson, who is ranked 71st.

It is Dokic’s third quarterfinal of the season, including her title run in Kuala Lumpur, and her third highest-ranked win this year (in Paris she defeated world No.20 Nadia Petrova and No.5 Francesca Schiavone in the first round of Kuala Lumpur). (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Dinara Safina beats Jelena Dokic at Miami

In the most attractive Wednesday's match at the Sony Ericssion Open, former world No.1 Dinara Safina broke former world No.4 Jelena Dokic's serve at 4-all in both sets on her way to a 6-4 6-4 first-round victory.

"I was really pleased with my serve and showed I can serve not only double faults but also some aces," said Safina, who ended each set off with an ace.

Both Safina, a wildcard at the event this year, and Dokic, this time a qualifier, have quarterfinal Miami appearances as their best results at the tournament. Safina, currently ranked 91st, reached the last 8 in 2008, when she lost to fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva, who will actually be her opponent in the awaiting round this year. The world No.64 Dokic played Miami quarterfinals in 2001 and 2003.

Prior to the Sony Ericsson Open, at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Safina won three matches in a row, her best performance in more than a year. (source: WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Jelena Dokic claims Malaysian Open title

Former world No.4 Jelena Dokic made her comeback to tennis big when she reached the Australian Open quarterfinals in 2009. However, she hardly built up on that, and despite winning five ITF titles, no substantial results can be pointed out from the two-year period. The situation has changed today, when the Australian fought back from a set down to defeat fifth seed Lucie Safarova in the final of the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur.

Today's tough 2-6 7-6(9) 6-4 victory ended Dokic's nine-year title drought. Her previous five career titles came in 2001 and 2002. The 27-year-old's run to the title included a win over top seed and world No.5 Francesca Schiavone in the first round. Victories over Kurumi Nara, Bojana Jovanovski, Michaella Krajicek and finally Lucie Safarova followed.

The world No.91 Dokic earned $37,000 by winning the International-level event, while Czech Safarova earned $19,000 as a runner-up. (photo: Malaysian Open)

Jelena Dokic and Lucie Safarova into Kuala Lumpur final

At the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur, Jelena Dokic advanced to her first final in seven years and will try to win her first WTA title since 2002. Her opponent will be fifth seed Lucie Safarova.

The former fourth-ranked Dokic rolled to a 6-2 6-3 victory over Michaella Krajicek in the semifinals. Krajicek was once ranked 30th in the world, but the young Dutch player, still only 22, played her last WTA semifinal in 2006, the year in which she also won two WTA titles. After that year, her last notable result was a Wimbledon quarterfinal in 2007.

Safarova prevented an all-Australian final at the Malaysian Open, beating fourth seed and wildcard Jarmila Groth 6-2 3-6 6-3. Safarova is looking for her first WTA title since 2008 Forest Hills.

World No.91 Dokic and and world No.35 Safarova have a 1-1 head-to-head record. Their single 2011 meeting in Paris Dokic won 4-6 6-3 6-4. (photos: Stephane Martinache, © Neal Trousdale)

Jelena Dokic beats Bojana Jovanovski for Kuala Lumpur semis

World No.91 Jelena Dokic won the promising quarterfinal with eighth seed Bojana Jovanovski to advance to the semifinals of the Malaysian Open where she will play Michaella Krajicek, who had upset third seed and defending champion Alisa Kleybanova in the second round, before taking out Anne Kremer in the quarters.

Australia's Dokic started the match and it went with serve all the way to 4-4, when the rising Serbian star Jovanovski earned a break to serve for the set. But it was not to be that simple. Dokic broke back, and even though Jovanovski repeated the feat and served for the set once again, leading 6-5, Dokic forced a tiebreak and won it 7-4. The first set alone lasted 1 hour 3 minutes.

The second set was much shorter, though, as Dokic broke the 55th-ranked Jovanovski in the fifth and seventh games to record a 7-6(4) 6-2 victory. Dokic served a total of seven aces, compared to Jovanovski's one. (photo: twenty90seven)

Bojana Jovanovski, Jelena Dokic to clash in Malaysian Open quarterfinals

Bojana Jovanovski has recorded her second thrilling victory over Urszula Radwanska in just two weeks. En route to qualifying for the last week's Qatar Ladies Open, the 55th-ranked Serb defeated the younger Radwanska sister 4-6 6-1 7-6(11), and today at the Malaysian Open, a 1-6 7-5 6-4 win over the Pole led Jovanovski into the quarterfinals.

The Malaysian Open is somewhat special tournament for Jovanovski, as her first WTA main draw appearance happened there last year. Then she lost to the now retired and eventual Kuala Lumpur runner-up Elena Dementieva in the second round. This time the 19-year-old Jovanovski has not only come to Kuala Lumpur seeded, at No.8, she improved her result by reaching the quarters and will even have a chance to give extra flavor to her Malaysian campaign if she takes out former world No.4 Jelena Dokic of Australia in her next match.

The 91st-ranked Dokic advanced to the last eight with a 3-6 7-6(6) 6-2 victory over Japan's Kurumi Nara. In the first round she upset top seed Francesca Schiavone. (photo: Johan Rivera)

Dokic stuns top seed Schiavone in Kuala Lumpur

Jelena Dokic recorded her first Top 5 victory in eight years by coming from a set down and beating fifth-ranked Francesca Schiavone 2-6 7-6(1) 6-4 in the first round of the Malaysian Open. The former world No.4 Dokic has actually retained her perfect record against the Italian, but their last meeting before today's one was ten years ago in Moscow. Dokic is 3-0 head-to-head against Schiavone now.

The 27-year-old Dokic, currently world No.91, had played six WTA events in 2011 prior to Kuala Lumpur and never won more than one match in the main draw except for the Paris Open where she reached the quarterfinals, beating Top 20 and Top 30 players on the way. She fell to Kim Clijsters then, who became No.1 by winning the match.

The Australian is grateful for her current form and is looking for a steady improvement:

I'm still not as consistent as I want to be - there are still some weeks where I don't play up to my high standard. But this year I'm playing WTA events every week and it's making a difference. Thank God, no injuries… my body is great and hopefully it will stay that way.

(source: WTA Tour, photo: Tidalist)


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