Around the World with Mr. Ed (January 20, 2001)

Around the World with Mr. Ed (January 20, 2001)
by Ed Toombs

The first week of a Grand Slam tournament invariably affords no shortage of intrigue, and the Australian Open was no exception. Venus Williams threatened to turn the event into an R rated competition with her slipping top. Jeff Tarango and Yevgeny Kafelnikov stirred the pot with complaints that the prize money was inadequate. Jelena Dokic, YUG, angrily cut her ties with Australia (or did she?). This week Mr Ed bravely ignores all these zany highjinks and focuses on two of the interesting stories of t he early rounds, Greg Rusedski and Evie Dominikovic.

Rusedski rumbles again

Canadian-turned-Englishman Greg Rusedski, a pioneer in switching nationalities, looked to be a man on his way to an early retirement in 2000. Struggling to regain his footwork, serve and confidence after foot surgery, Rusedski struggled to a 19-21 record last year. He surely hit his low point at Wimbledon, where he suffered a 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-7 (8-10), 9-7 first round loss to the hapless Vince Spadea, who had lost his previous 21 matches. After another desultory first-round loss in his home coun try to close the season ? this time to Paul Goldstein in Brighton -- the former top-tenner had slipped to a ranking of 69, and British tennis observers were whispering that Greg was finished as a top player.
Not Rusedski himself, though. He revealed that he had taken on Pat Cash as coach, and was optimistic about a turnaround. "I just want to get my game back to what it was before," said Greg after his loss in Brighton. "Everybody has a really bad year and I think I battled through it and a lot of people wouldn't have battled through it. I sat down with Pat in London after I lost in Paris and we talked for two hours. I need someone who knows what it's like to win a major and someone who played serve and vo lley. I'm just washing my hands of this year."
Cash is no doubt an excellent choice. The former Wimbledon champion guided Mark Philippoussis to the best tennis of his career, notably coaching him to the 1998 U.S. Open final. Rusedski and Cash added two other members to the support group: physiotherapist Ryan Kendrick and "biomechanist" Brad Langevad, to attempt to restore the physical side of his game.
The British number two wasn't expecting to see the fruits of his labours for another three to six months. After an iffy first round performance against qualifier Marcos Ondruska at the Australian Open, Rusedski admitted, "my expectations aren't that high, because I'm still on the rebuilding path." However he followed with a surprisingly high-level performance to shock world #1 Gustavo Kuerten in five long sets. As I write these lines, Rusedski has shocked observers, and perhaps even himself, with a run to the fourth round.
Notably, the British #2 has adopted a more fluid service motion that compromises a bit of service speed, but adds control and is easier on his body. He has served extraordinarily well, with first-serve percentages of higher than 70% in his second and third round matches. Showing quicker court movement and improved ground strokes as well, Rusedeski is once again a player to reckon with.
It will be interesting to follow Rusedski's return from the tennis wilderness for the rest of the Australian Open and throught the season.

Evie makes her mark

With the troubled Jelena Dokic placing a YUG next to her name on the scoreboard, the Australian woman who made the most noise ? literally ? in Melbourne was an intriguing 20-year-old from Sydney named Evie Dominikovic.
I recall seeing Evie for the first time in Repentigny, Quebec in 1998, where she won the Canadian junior championships in impressive fashion over a certain J. Dokic. Dominikovic went on to reach the U.S. Open junior semis the following week (losing to Katarina Srebotnik), and reached #6 in the world junior rankings that year.
However, her professional career has been mostly a disappointment -- in two years as a pro she has never been ranked higher than 144. There have been flashes of promise, for example, a narrow 5-7 6-3 8-6 loss to Jennifer Capriati at the 1999 Australian Open, but they were few and far between until late last season. Last fall we saw signs that Evie might be ready for a breakthrough. During a mini-circuit of satellite tournaments in Australia, Dominikovic played the best tennis of her young pro career, ama ssing four titles, a final and a semifinal in six events.
The Sydneysider was able to hold her fine form into the beginning of this year, particularly this week in Melbourne. There Dominikovic posted the best win of her career, an first round upset over the puzzling former Swiss top ten star Patty Schnyder. Evie went on to the third round where she lost with honour to the solid Italian veteran Rita Grande.
At 5' 8" (1.73 m), Dominikovic has an effective serve and forehand, and is learning to maintain the cadence of pro rallies. Evie is a tireless retriever who usually who usually wins matches by outsteadying, rather than overpowering, her opponent. A feisty competitor who wears her heart on her sleeve, she is very vocal on court. In fact, she admits to being inspired by the screaming and fist-pumping of the controversial Lleyton Hewitt. "Lleyton is a great inspiration and just the crowd, it's so great, " Evie told the media in Melbourne. "When I get fired up I really play well and if I don't fire up I kind of drift away -- I just have to keep that momentum up."
Keeping the momentum will be the key in 2001 for "Evie D." as she attempts to replicate her Melbourne success throughout the rest of the season, and finally crack the top 100.

You may read previous Mr. Ed columns by clicking here.

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