News and comments

News and comments
including FED CUP

(April-May '98)

	25 May - Although Dominique wasn't committed to Yellow Pages Open in Madrid in advance, she still played there (was 2nd seed) - and not bad! She got first round bye, defeated Gala Leon Garcia in second round 7-5 6-1, Kristie Boogert in quarters 6-0 7-6 and Barbara Schett in semis 6-2 6-2... Unfortunately final didn't go so well, she lost to Patty Schnyder again....6-3 4-6 0-6... But as I read from WTA homepage: "After winning the first set, Van Roost jumped out to a 2-1 lead in the second before having her left foot taped. She then lost 11 of the next 13 games." - Let's hope that this injury wasn't so bad and dangerous after all, and that she can play her best tennis in French Open!!! But 5 finals in 5 months isn't so bad achievement either....:):):):):) Hopefully Dominique got some confidence on clay....
	17 May - Actually it wasn't so bad loss after all - Amelie Mauresmo continued to final, defeating Lindsay Davenport and Jana Novotna on the way....
	12 May - Oh noooo!!! Dominique was upset by qualifier Amelie Mauresmo in very tight match 6-3 4-6 5-7... Clay seems definitely be very inconvenient surface for Dominique... Now there have been two very early exits - first in Budapest and now in Berlin - Belgian girls are not having their best times... specially Dominique after so excellent play during Fed Cup matches...it's very sad... Hopefully she will recover from this before French Open - now she has almost two weeks to practice and gain her confidence... Come on, Dominque, you can do it!!!!!!!!
	12 May - So that's it - tough day for Dominique - playing her singles match as the second match on Court C (games started 12:30) and after that playing her doubles as the fourth match...
	12 May - Dominique will start in Berlin today - she will play qualifier Amelie Mauresmo and if she wins, she will meet her doubles partner Florencia Labat in second round. In third round it could probably by Lindsay Davenport who plays Henrieta Nagyova today. Nagyova caused a sad upset yesterday - she won Sabine in first round - 2-6 6-3 7-5. Sabine is really having sad times - she will lose 139 very useful points she had to defend here... Let's hope that she recovers from it quickly...
	12 May - New rankings - Dominique is still 14th (career high, remember!!!) with 1764 points (624 Q), 61 points were added and she has to defend 28 points. Sabine is 22th with 1203 points (510 Q), only 1 point was added and she had to defend 139 points this week... she couldn't do it, as we know, sadly....

11 May - Week of Berlin tournament. Still no draw can be found.

9 May - Tournament in Rome is over - Dominique and Florencia lost their doubles match to highest seeds 6-3 6-3 and it seems that Sabine and Miriam have lost in second round, although no result can be found.

8 May - Some statistics around Dominique's achievements so far this year comparing with the previous one (excluding the so called "quality points").

Improval	Auckland (from 1st round loss to final)
Same	Rome (3rd rnd), Hannover (2), Key Biscane (2)
New tournaments	Budapest (1), Indian Wells (3), Paris (F), Linz (F)
"Recession"	Hobart (from winner to finalist), Australian Open (QF - 3rd rnd)
Did not play	Bol (1st round loss last year)
	Cardiff (QF) - there isn't this kind of tournament anymore?!?!

So, in general, Dominique has definitely had a good start this year: one title and three finals! Only one improved tournament was a huge "jump" from first round loss to place in final, new tournaments where she didn't have any points to defend, "gave" two finals and place in 3rd round in important tournament of Indian Wells. So called "recessions" were also not so dangerous, although losing in AO 3rd round meant a loss of quite a lot important points.

Next week it will be Tier I tournament in Berlin - Dominique has no points to defend, so it will be another chance to gain some more points before the French Open, because a week before that Dominique is having a short break. In Roland Garros Dominique will have to defend third round points, after that - both in Birmingham and Rosmalen, the QF points (she will be 3rd seed) - and important point: there isn't so many quality points to defend - this means a good chance to improve again!. In Birmingham the higher seeds are Spirlea and Tauziat, in Rosmalen Martinez and Testud.

8 May - Some positive news - tournament in Rome is continuing, even for Dominique! :) Together with Florencia Labat they won the 7th seeded double Likhovtseva-Sugiyama 6-1 4-6 6-1! But next round will be quite tough again - they will meet the 1st seeded double Yayuk Basuki/Caroline Vis... Some words about Sabine's doubles results as well - in first round they defeated (together with Miriam Oremans, of course!) Noorlander/Pleming 2-6 6-4 6-1 and will meet 2nd seeded double Adams/Bollegraf in second round.

7 May - Ohh, sad news for all Dominique fans - it wasn't supposed to be another "great Arantxa match" this time, but on the other hand - there's nothing to blame about losing to stronger player...though score wasn't specially impressive from Dominique's side - 1-6 2-6... But next week it's another tough tournament - Berlin...and hopefully it will go better there... Good luck for Dominique!!!

6 May - Dominique is playing doubles in Rome as well - together with her "old" partner Florencia Labat. In first round they won Dechaume-Balleret - Sandrine Testud in very confident way - 6-1 6-4. Now they will meet Elena Likhovtseva - Ai Sugiyama in next round.

6 May - Taking it round-by-round, Dominique won her second round opponent Naoko Sawamatsu with the same score 6-4 6-2! Good!!! And in case Cristina Torrens-Valero won't upset Arantxa, it will be "the" match again! Nervous moments, nervous moments....

5 May - So, Dominique is in action again - she is 13th seed in Italian Open where almost all the thoughest names are present. At first - the draw again!!! Yes, it will probably be Arantxa again in 3rd round - some more very nervous moments for Dominique fans... I don't know, but in some reasons I just don't like to hear that they are meeting again...:):) (I guess Marsha likes it either...:):):) Anyway, in first round Dominique did her job well - she won Karina Habsudova 6-4 6-2.
BTW, as it seems, Belgium will meet Slovakia in Fed Cup World Group qualification round in 25-26th July, so it will be Habsudova again...Let's hope it goes the same way as today! :):):) BTW2 - Sabine had bad luck again - she met her "old rival" Sarah Pitkowski in first round - and it didn't end so good - 1-6 6-3 3-6... And as I saw Laurence Courtois "live" in Belgium as well, I'd like to mention her score too - it wasn't good though - she lost to Naoko Sawamatsu 6-1 2-6 4-6... Now Dominique has to "pay" her back (it was meant as a friendly comment...:):):)

22 April - Although Dominique had announced that she will have a break until the 4th of May, she just entered a Lotto-Westel Budapest Open (Tier IV) on Monday as 2nd seed. Unfortunately this tournament didn't go as good as THE WEEKEND for her, she was upset or ousted by Catalina Cristea of Romania 4-6 0-6... This last set seems to be too one-sided for THE Dominque I saw three days ago, so I quess something happened...Let's hope that it wasn't anything serious...

19 April - THE DAY nr.2 started very impressively again - Dominique won her second singles match against Sandrine Testud 7-5 7-6 (9-7)!!! It was one of the toughest matches I've ever seen - there were 5 breaks in first set and 4 breaks in second - and Dominique was 1-4 and 2-5 down in second set tie-break, but she still won it!!! And deserved endless and standing ovations and applauds for that!!
And as she said after the match to the audience: "The audience was absolutely great and that she "owns" at least 1/3 of this win to the audience..." I'm very proud that I could be a part of it!!! Unfortunately it didn't go so well for Belgium team later on - Sabine lost the decisive match against Sarah Pitkowski 6-4 3-6 1-6 because of cramps and some other sorts of injuries and the doubles team was far too weak - Laurence Courtois and Els Callens lost to Alexandra Fusai and Nathalie Tauziat 4-6 0-6, although they won the first 3 games of the match... See the longer overview of FED CUP from the special page!

18 April - Yess!!! (Once again..:) This was THE DAY!!! The first time when I saw Dominique playing "live". And it was definitely worth of going the whole way to Belgium!!! In the first match Sabine lost to Sandrine Testud 3-6 2-6 - Sandrine just seemed to be too powerful for Sabine...
And then, and then!!! As they said there - 15 minutes to Paradise!!! Dominique played very tough match against Sarah Pitkowski - but she won very impressively 4-6 6-4 6-2!!! This was probably one of her best matches ever!!!

6 April - Yess!!! Dominique reached her new career high this week!!! She is 14th now!!!

6 April - It has been a while from last up-date - now some words about what has happened. Dominique played at Lipton Championships, but unfortunately it didn't go so well - after getting bye in first round she lost mysteriously to Elena Likhovtseva in second round by score 0-6 1-6...there were some doubts that maybe Dominique was forced to retire after first games in second set, but nothing is sure yet... Other information sources (thanks, Sascha!) knew that she had some kind of problems with her eyes - that she just couldn't see anything... Who knows... Now she had a short break before the Fed Cup matches will start in 18th of April. And the most important thing is that hopefully I'll be there as well, YESSS! Go on Dominique, your supporters are coming!!! :):):)