By Glyn James
June 12 2002

Yugoslavian Jelena Dokic has overcome Britain's very own Lucie Ahl in two sets, eventually winning 7-6 (4) 6-4. Ahl came into the match very confident, and believed she could beat the number one seed. She said, earlier in the week, "I feel I have the tennis in me to win a game like this. It's all about self belief and I have a lot of that at the moment."

Ahl, a wildcard at this tournament, started the match with a great deal of confidence. It was a classic encounter of the number one seed against the underdog playing in her own back yard, and the many Brits present were hoping that their girl would come away with a fairy-tale victory.

Ahl gave them much hope in the early stages, and raced away to a 5-3 lead, and looked like taking the first set. However, Jelena proved that she wasn't going to allow the Brit an easy ride. She dug in hard and displayed her talent and forced the set to a tie breaker. Jelena stepped up the pace in the tie breaker enough to take it 7-4, and take the first set.

With the first set under her belt Jelena must have felt relieved more than anything, but the match wasn't over yet. Jelena has a tendancy to lose concentration during matches, and no-one would have known this more than Ahl. Lucie Ahl never gave up. She fought until the last point, but at the end of the day, no matter how much support she would receive, Jelena was the number one seed, and for very good reason. A professional performance in the second set saw Jelena taking the set 6-4.

Ahl must have been a little disappointed with not taking her chances in the first set, and she knew that if she beat Jelena then she would make the headlines. Ahl has nothing to feel bad about though, she proved that she had the ability to cause a very good player some trouble, and it was a very respectful performance. As for Dokic, she'll be relieved that she got the result, but won't be happy with her performance. She will have to up the pace if she's to win this tournament, and it will be interesting to see if she can do that in the next game.