Jelena Dokic couldn’t repeat her Australian Open heroics, losing in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

The 2009 Australian Open quarterfinalist, who has risen from No.178 to No.80 in the rankings this year, lost in straight sets to 34-year-old American Jill Craybas 6-4 6-2.

Dokic said she may have been mentally beaten before taking the court against Craybas. The Australian also said: "I'm really, really struggling mentally. I need to just settle down and get myself together again."

In her only other outing since Melbourne, the 25-year-old Dokic was defeated in the opening round of Memphis by top seed Caroline Wozniacki. (source: ESPN, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Third seed Dinara Safina ended Jelena Dokic’s never-to-be-forgotten fairytale to reach the semifinals of the 2009 Australian Open. Score: 6-4 4-6 6-4.

I am sorry that Dokic lost, because she clearly had a chance to win. On the other hand, I’m happy the match was a close three-setter and Dokic’s extraordinary Australian Open run ended in style. Safina deserved to win, and I’m looking forward to watching her play against fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals.

Safina got to a 2-0 lead in the first set, but in the sixth game Dokic managed to return that one break. At 4-4, Dokic’s serve was broken again, and Safina quickly served out for the set in the following game.

Dokic won the second set after many ups and downs. Most notably, she didn’t win the set on her own serve at 5-4, but Safina lost the following game, handing Dokic the win by double-faulting.

In the third set Safina established an early lead, 2-0, but later in the set Dokic leveled at 4-4, and even earned two successive break points in the following game. However, the world No.3 Safina won the next two games to reach her third Grand Slam semifinal.

Dokic, currently ranked 187th in the world will move into the Top 100 when the new rankings are released. I can’t wait to watch her showing her heart of a champion in more tournaments.

As for Safina's match-up with Zvonareva, Zvonareva won their last three encounters, and all the three took place last year, on hard surface, while Safina leads their overall head-to-head record 5-4. (photos: Getty Images)

Wildcard competitor Jelena Dokic, ranked 187th in the world, is making her comeback even more wonderful than anyone could have imagined, and to make things better, everything’s happening at her home Grand Slam, the Australian Open. Inspired by her brilliant run and beautiful emotional post-match interviews, I decided to make this little special.

I will start with ESPN’s short story about the 25-year-old Jelena’s life and career.

At the 2009 Australian Open, the former world No.4 Dokic first defeated world No.80 Tamira Paszek, then upset No.18 Anna Chakvetadze, the amazing story continued with a defeat of No.12 Caroline Wozniacki, and No.31 Alisa Kleybanova. Dokic has reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and will next face powerful third seed Dinara Safina.

Dokic's post-match interview after her first-round win was the most emotional, as she talked about all the difficulties she went through. Read more »

Third seed Dinara Safina saved match points before reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals where she will face world No.187 Jelena Dokic, who has continued her dream run.

Safina beat French 15th seed Alize Cornet 6-2 2-6 7-5. Cornet surrendered a double break in the final set and two match points as the Russian dug herself out of trouble and took the win, which made Cornet slump in a chair in tears.

"Somebody needs to smack me so hard in my head that something finally shakes and I put the cables together," said the world No.3 Safina.

Australia’s comeback player Jelena Dokic continued to delight the tennis world and excite the Australian Open spectators by practically coming out of nowhere and reaching the quarterfinals. Her latest victory came over Russian 29th seed Alisa Kleybanova, who upset world No.5 Ana Ivanovic in the third round. Dokic defeated Kleybanova 7-5 5-7 8-6.

As already mentioned, one of the quarterfinals will feature Dokic and Safina. The two have actually played each other. Six years ago in Shanghai, Safina defeated Dokic 6-1 6-4. I said "actually played each other" because the 25-year-old Dokic had never before met with any of her previous opponents at the 2009 Australian Open, including Tamira Paszek, Anna Chakvetadze, Caroline Wozniacki, and Alisa Kleybanova, because of her very long absence from tennis.

In an all-Russian fourth-round match, seventh seed Vera Zvonareva set up a quarterfinal against Bartoli with a 7-5 6-4 victory over 10th seed Nadia Petrova. Bartoli crushed top seed Jelena Jankovic, who became the third Australian Open top seed in the Open Era to fall before the quarters. (via BBC, photos: Getty Images)

Comeback player Jelena Dokic of Australia, ranked 187th in the world, continued her impressive run at the 2009 Australian Open with a 3-6 6-1 6-2 victory over No.11 seed Caroline Wozniacki.

Previously at the tournament Dokic had defeated Tamira Paszek and Anna Chakvetadze, but I was skeptical she would be strong enough to go past the young star Wozniacki too, who made her Australian Open debut last year and then reached the fourth round already.

The lead that Wozniacki established after breaking Dokic in the fourth game of the first set was crucial and gave the young Dane the victory in the first set. As Dokic had as much as six break points in the first set and converted none of them, I was afraid her maximum at this year’s Australian Open had already been reached. But no! The 25-year-old Dokic spectacularly won the next two sets, and booked herself a place in the fourth round. Amazing!

It seemed like the 18-year-old Dane was a bit intimidated by all the story behind the former world No.4 Dokic, the lowest ranked player left in the draw, especially because they had never met before.

The Wimbledon semifinalist Dokic has today made her best result at the Australian Open. In 1999 she reached the third round.

Dokic will next face either fifth seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia or No.29 seed Alisa Kleybanova of Russia, who are currently playing the third set. Warning: If you are a big Ana fan, don't watch that match, you might get a heart attack. (photo: Getty Images)