PARIS (Reuters) – Fourth seed Jelena Dokic won a battle of the generations by defeating Monica Seles 6-3 3-6 6-4 in the semifinals of the Paris Open indoor tournament on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was the first time in five encounters between the two that the 18-year-old Yugoslav has come out on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We’ve had a few tough matches but I was never really able even to have a chance of winning so I’m very happy,” a beaming Dokic told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I really didn’t think I was going to win even after I won that first set because she’s such a great player and she always comes back. I just went for every point and didn’t really worry about the score.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dokic romped to a 4-1 lead in the first set, overpowering fifth seed Seles with unstoppable serves and groundstrokes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Yugoslav-born American raised her game in the latter part of the set but it was not enough to counter an inspired Dokic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second set looked like it was going to go the same way when world number nine Dokic broke to lead 2-1, but her 28-year-old opponent immediately broke back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seles upped the pressure, producing some lightning-speed returns and clinical baseline shots into the corners of the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dokic seemed to wilt under Seles’s punishing blows and two double-faults at 4-3 gifted the American a break-point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dokic saved that point and two more but Seles eventually won a superb rally to break and then held serve to seal the set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the third set Seles, the world number ten, matched her opponent’s hitting power but she could not live with Dokic’s speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Yugoslav surprised Seles with several perfect drop-shots and sent her racing around the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DOKIC PROTESTS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dokic contested several line-calls and at one point became so frustrated with the umpire she had to wipe away a tear before serving. But she held her nerve and did not drop a single service game in the set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At 5-4 she produced two searing returns to gain two match points. Seles saved the first with a hefty backhand volley but hit a baseline shot wide on the next point, sending Dokic leaping around the court in an explosion of joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dokic, who broke into the top ten last year after winning three singles titles, had lost her first match of the year to Anne Kremer of Luxembourg in Tokyo last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Today has given me confidence. It’s only my second tournament of the year so to reach the final is very good for me,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She will face either world number two Venus Williams or defending champion Amelie Mauresmo of France in the final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS (Reuters) – Fourth seed Jelena Dokic won a battle of the generations by defeating Monica Seles 6-3 3-6 6-4 in the semifinals of the Paris Open indoor tournament on Saturday. It was the first time in five encounters between the two that the 18-year-old Yugoslav has come out on top. “We’ve had a few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,56],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7801"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}