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.
Yeah! I’ve always believed in Jelena Dokic!
She deserves the success, she was robbed of her younger years by her abusive father and who knows, if it did not happen she could have been as successful like Clijsters or other top players.
Im really happy to hear that Jelena won the title! Hopefully it is a taster of a more successful 2011 for her!
Well done, Jelena! It’s always good to hear an Aussie success story!
I’m glad for Jelena, she finally has a highlight in her carrier since AO ’09. I don’t belive she’ll ever have a great comeback, but it’s good to hear she can still make an excellent result.
Congratulations to Jelena. It is nice to see her being rewarded for not giving up and all the hard work she has put in.
Bravo Jelena! She won some very though opponents. “I’m happy to win a title as early in the season like this, but more importantly it was the players I beat and the matches I went through,” she said.
“I just don’t know where my strength came from . . . but I just kept pushing and pulling myself up to win the match. “I’m very happy to win the tournament and, of course, after winning one your appetite gets bigger. And it will be the key to maintaining the momentum now.”
P.S Dinara Safina and Galina Voskoboeva won doubles titles 🙂
Maja J, I’m also glad to see Dinara win doubles, to compensate her struggles in singles.
Man, her father must be fuming! lol