NEWS AND COMMENTS
Fed Cup, Wimbledon and much more...
| 25 July - Sad news for all fans of Belgian Fed Cup team - our favourites had a unfortunate start today - Sabine lost to Henrieta Nagyova 5-7 4-6 and Dominique in second match to Karina Habsudova 2-6 3-6... So it will be very difficult to defend a place in World Group I tomorrow... Still, good luck for Dominique and Sabine, Els and Justine for second day of competition! |
| 25 July - Now, Fed Cup!!! Sabine will meet Henrieta Nagyova in first match and Dominique Karina Habsudova in second singles match today. Tomorrow the first match will be Dominique-Nagyova and second one Sabine-Habsudova. In case Belgium will have decisive lead, in doubles match Justine Henin may step on court together with Els Callens, if the doubles match is decisive, Dominique will join Els to save Belgium. Hopefully high temperature (35 degrees Celsius) and hard claycourt won't distract Belgian girls - Dominique said that it can't be too big problem as in Australia and USA temperatures are even higher.... |
| 21 July - News about career high ranking again!!! This time it concerns doubles - Dominique is now 33th!!! And Flo took her place at 35th... (it's from 19th of July). |
| 20 July - Short overview of Fed Cup teams - rankings and head-to-heads (H - hardcourt, Cl - clay, Ca - carpet, G - grass; number in parantheses after names is current ranking)... |
BEL\SVK |
Henrieta Nagyova (22) | Karina Habsudova (59) | Katarina Studenikova (87) | Janette Husarova (185) |
| Dominique Van Roost (12) | 0:1('97 H) | 1:3 ('93 H) ('94 H) ('94 Cl) ('98 Cl - Dominique) |
0:4 ('93 Ca) ('96 H) ('96 G) ('96 Ca) |
0:0 |
| Sabine Appelmans (27) | 0:2 ('96 Cl) ('98 Cl) |
3:0 ('91 H) ('93 Ca) ('97 Cl) |
2:0 ('93 Ca) ('97 Ca) |
0:0 |
| Els Callens (124) | 0:0 | 0:0 | 0:0 | 0:1 ('93 Ca) |
| Justine Henin (314) | 0:0 | 0:0 | 0:0 | 0:0 |
As we can see the past results don't give so positive forecasts - except Sabine's, but as some of those matches have been played so long time ago and we all know that Dominique has become totally different player now, I guess they won't matter so much... The tie will be played on red clay and outdoors... and on homecourt of Slovakians, but hopefully any of these facts bother Belgian girls too much...
| 20 July . Now I have some clues where Dominique will play after her long break - in week of 17th August she will play in Tier I tournament in Montreal (and we will have our own correspondent there - good luck, Chris!!!) and she may be seeded as 8th or 9th (as Steffi will get exempt into main draw). In week of 24th of August Dominique will play in Tier II tournament in New Haven and she will probably be seeded as 4th. So, let's see what will happen there - as she won't have any points to defend, some additional ones will be earned... |
| 20 July - So, now it sure that Fed Cup match Belgium vs Slovakia will be played in Slovak Republic (TK Slovan Kerametal, Bratislava) and the teams are following: |
| BELGIUM | SLOVAK REPUBLIC |
| Dominique Van Roost | Henrieta Nagyova |
| Sabine Appelmans | Karina Habsudova |
| Els Callens | Katarina Studenikova |
| Justine Henin | Janette Husarova |
| Capt. - Steven Martens | Capt. - Peter Vajda |
Hopefully this weekend will be successful for Belgian team - that Dominique continues her great run in Fed Cup singles and that Sabine gets over her recent bad luck in this competition! Go, Belgium! Go!
| 15 July - Some news connected with ranking and results - Dominique is now 10th in Race to the Chace Championships with 1286 points! Monica Seles has only 5 points more and such names as Zvereva, Tauziat, Testud, Sugiyama, Pierce and Serena Williams are all behind her! Great!!! Hopefully there is enough "steam" in Dominique to continue like that during the second part of this season as well, so that we could see her playing at Chase Champs in autumn! |
| 14 July - New WTA rankings were announced yesterday - as Dominique didn't play last week and Patty Schnyder won (another) title she moved ahead of Dominique - Patty has 2051 and Dominique 1997 points and rankings are respectively 11th and 12th. Dominique's doubles ranking is still 35th - her career high as you know... |
| 13 July - As Dominique seems to have taken a short break there is not so much to comment right now... She didn't play last week and won't do it this week either... I guess that next time we will hear about her will be 25th and 26th of July when Belgium will meet Slovakia in Fed Cup match which will decide which country will stay in World Group I next year and which one will have to play in Group II! Hopefully there will be more news about it in local Belgian newspapers soon.... |
| 7 July - So, now it's announced - new WTA rankings! And what a great news this brought - Dominique's new career high is 11th - she has 1997 T and 742 Q points (and she earned 184 points from Wimbledon)! And she has achieved a new career high doubles ranking as well (it's becoming a good habbit - new career high every week! :):):) - now she is ranked 35th - with 930 T and 112 Q points (Wimbledon doubles gave her 78 points)! YESSSSSSSS, IT'S REALLY GREAT! GO ON, DOMINIQUE - AND TOP 10 PLACE ISN'T SO FAR AWAY!!! BTW, soon it will be "1 Million Day" as Dominique's career prize money has rised to as much as $ 990.625 (this year $ 263.449 - almost 1/3 of the whole career so far!?!) |
Some ranking news about other great ones - unfortunately Sabin has dropped couple of places - from 25th to 27th, but hopefully she will find her confidence soon again and things will start to go well again!!! And Flo, Dominique's doubles partner is ranked higher than Dominique again - she is 33th now - they are really a good team!!!
| 3 July - So - some early predictions of post-Wimbledon rankings - as Tauziat reached the final, Top 10 has to be reached yet - but, but.... Dominique will be ranked career high 11th from Monday!!! Good, Dominique!!! "Top ten place is compensation for all the work we have invested from the September 1996" - Dominique... It will be 11th, but top ten isn't only dream anymore... And considering that Dominique doesn't have any points to defend until the middle of September, this unbelievable "TOP 10" will be reached sooner than we expect!!! YESSSSSSSSS!!! | ||||||||
| 2 July - Today Dominique had her last match in this year's Wimbledon (unfortunately...) - together with Flo she faced 2nd seeds Davenport and Zvereva - I couldn't follow this match "live", that's why I can't comment the result - defeat in straight sets 3-6 2-6... So the total score of Wimbledon '98 became 6-3, not a bad one... | ||||||||
| 1 July - So, another busy day for Dominique in Wimbledon - her "score" for today is 1-1. At first - together with Flo they won a tough three set doubles match 7-5 3-6 6-3. I don't know what happened in the end of first set, because for some time there were absolutely no connections to Wimbledon - anyway, the last moment I saw was that Dominique and Flo were leading 5-2 and the next connection showed that the score was 7-5 3-6....Btw, there was one of the longest game I've seen from NetCam this year - 4th game of the match, where were 5 deuces, 3 game points and 3 break-points - and there may have been even more, because Java Scoreboard was quite slow - anyway, they managed to hold their servicegame after all....Now they will meet 2nd seeds Lindsay Davenport-Natasha Zvereva in third round. Then, after some rest, Dominique played her second round mixed doubles match against Macpherson - McQuillan who were 10th seeds - it was quite tough match as well, because Belgians made the winning very difficult for seeds - they lost only 6-7 4-6 and there was only one service-break in whole match... So the overall win-lose record for Dominique in Wimbledon '98 is 6-2 - not bad... And hopefully it will be even better!!!! Good luck, Dominique and Flo!!! | ||||||||
| 30 June - So, now it's over... Dominique lost in three sets 6-3 3-6 2-6... but what an impressive start this match had - Dominique leaded first set 5-0!!! But as Arantxa is in great come-back form, it didn't last very long...although it's difficult to understand how it went that way, because almost all statistics were in favour of Dominique... But no matter of this last result, Dominique has been very successive in Wimbledon this year - giving the greatest contest in fourth round (as all other 4th round losers lost in straight sets) and earning the most points from this kind of achievement... Let's wait for new rankings which will be published on Monday - hopefully Dominique will reach her new career high again!!! Well done, Dominique!!! In those minutes she will start her first round mixed doubles match - hopefully it goes good and there will be lots of doubles matches coming..... | ||||||||
| 30 June - Yesss, everything is going very positively now - yesterday, late in the evening Dominique and Flo won their first round doubles match in straight sets 6-1 7-5. Although everything didn't go so smoothly in second set, it shows that they both are in great form! Good, go on like that! And - it's a showdown time again - today, at 13:00 CET on court 1 there will be Dominique versus Arantxa - and actually, there are more and more those, who believe that it can be something...:):):) | ||||||||
| 29 June - Due to continuing showers Dominique - Sabine match could be played only today - and now it's already finished. YESSSSSSSSSS! YESSSSSSSSSS! YESSSSSSSSSS! You can guess that it means that Dominique won this one - and in very impressive way - in straight sets 6-1 6-2!!!! Now it's sure that Dominique is having her career best Wimbledon, because she has never reached 4th round before! Well done, Dominique!!! But on the other hand we should feel sad for Sabine, because she seemed really have big troubles on her serve - she couldn't hold any of her service games!?!? But as Dominique said in one of her pre-match interviews - the one who is mentally thougher will win... and it was Dominique (Btw, their head-to-head record is now 5-0 for Dominique!). Now - as unbelievable as it may seem - Dominique will meet Arantxa in next round (Aranxta has had two great escapes in two quite tough matches - so hopefully Dominique will have a chance against her, specially taking into account that she has given away only 9 games in three matches). But first both Belgian girls will have to play her doubles matches today - good luck for them both!!! | ||||||||
| 26 June - Now it's sure that it will be Dominique vs Sabine, as Sabine won her match 6-1 6-4 after some more rain delays. Hopefully it goes well for Dominique!!! BTW, as it seems, Dominique will have full program - she will play in mixed doubles as well - together with Belgian Tom Vanhoudt, they will meet team from USA - Michael Sell/Janet Lee in first round. In second round their opponents may be 10th seeds David Macpherson and Rachel McQuillan from Australia. | ||||||||
| 25 June - Yessssssss! Dominique is in third round!!! And what an impressive second round match it was - win in straight sets 6-1 6-1 - she gave away only two games - in first set she lost her first service game and in second set Anne Miller managed to hold her service game in 4th game. Now Dominique will meet Sabine - it's almost 95% sure now, as Sabine leads 6-1 5-2 and 30-30 on her own service game... but it's never over until it's over, so let's see... Go Belgium, go!!! Dominique has already repeated her career best Wimbledon (reaching to third round), and it can be better - anyway, it's sure that we will have Belgian in fourth round! Haha, and who's waiting there - Arantxa...:):):) | ||||||||
| 25 June - At first some news (and positive!) about Wimbledon - Dominique had quite easy first round match - she won in straight sets 6-1 6-3. Now she is playing Anne Miller in second round - it's 2-1 and 40-0 to Dominique, but as we are in England...it's rain delay... Sabine had also a great start - she defeated Torrens-Valero in first round and leads Latimer of USA 4-0... Belgian girls will meet in third round, if both are successive... What a great match to come! | ||||||||
| 25 June - Ranking news! Dominique is 14th again, with 1815 T and 630 Q points (Sabine is 25th with 1013 T and 418 Q points). And now - new career high in doubles again - Dominique is 37th now!!! (909,5 T and 119,5 Q points) - now she is (probably the first time) ranked higher than her current doubles partner Flo Labat... They were quite good at Rosmalen once again - losing only to first seeds in quarters... Hopefully they will have a great tournament in Wimbledon, 15th seeds as they are!!! | ||||||||
| 18 June - It seems that there has been some kind of misunderstandings concerning publishing of Rosmalen results - today it was announced that Dominique lost 3-6 6-7 (3-7)... So no worries about injury - at least something positive about a defeat... Still no news about doubles results... | ||||||||
| 17 June - At last some results from Rosmalen - although they are quite sad... It seems that Dominique lost her first round match against local girl Miriam Oremans - but given result is somehow strange 6-3 6-7 3-7(???)... this last one may also be the tie-break result, but then - no idea who and why won after first two sets 1-1... Anyway, it was announced that Dominique lost - hopefully it wasn't anything serious, any injury or something... Sad, that Dominique couldn't defend her last year's points from Rosmalen... Now she has 4 days for preparing before Wimbledon tournament starts on Monday. | ||||||||
| 16 June - Wimbledon
draw has been announced - Dominique is in first quarter (together with Martina Hingis) and
she is scheduled to play:
In doubles draw Dominique and Flo are in bottom half and they will play Svetlana Krivencheva (BUL) and Louise Pleming (AUS) in first round. In second round they may meet Koreans Yoon-Yeong Cho and Sung-Hee Park or qualifiers - first seeds to meet may be Davenport-Zvereva (2nd seeds) in third round. | ||||||||
| 16 June - Some statistics about Dominique's previous results in Wimbledon - the best result is reaching to 3rd round which she managed to do twice - 94 and 96. Last year she was defeated by 9th seed Mary Pierce in first round. This years draw will be announced today - so let's see whom she will meet this year.... |
| 1991 | Did not Play |
| 1992 | Lost in 1st round |
| 1993 | Lost in 1st round |
| 1994 | Lost in 3rd round |
| 1995 | Lost in 2nd round |
| 1996 | Lost in 3rd round |
| 1997 | Lost in 1st round |
| 16 June - Dominique is seeded 15th in Wimbledon - she is seeded in third Grand Slam tournament in a row!!! But even better news is that she, together with Flo, is seeded in doubles as well - again 15th!!! It's the first time when Dominique is part of seeded doubles team in Grand Slam! Good! Hopefully they can do well in England! Still no news from Rosmalen..... |
| 16 June - Yess! Some good news - Dominique is ranked 14th again with 1866 T and 648 Q points and this week she has 53 points to defend. Her doubles ranking is 40th. And, btw, in Race to the Chace Dominique is still 9th with 1060 points earned this year - she is in front of such names as Pierce, Seles, Coetzer, Majoli, Testud (!) etc... Hopefully she manages to continue as good - and we will see her at Chase Championships in New York City in November 16-22! |
| 15 June - Well... Rosmalen draw has been announced now - Amanda Coetzer is 1st seed and Sandrine Testud 2nd - and after them is Dominique as 3rd seed! First two seeds got first round bye, Dominique will meet Miriam Oremans in first round. Possible second round opponent will be Wang or Dechaume-Balleret and another seed in this quarted of draw is Moriaru (7). |
| 15 June - Btw, some good news about doubles - Dominque and Flo reached semifinal where they lost to 1st seeds Lisa Raymond-Rennae Stubbs...of course, this second part of the news wasn't so good..:):) It really seems that this team is working very well!! And this achievement will probably cause even higher new career high doubles ranking for Dominique! YESSSSSS! |
| 15 June - Match against De Swardt finished 7-5 6-3! But in quarters it didn't continue like that - Dominique lost in straight sets 3-6 4-6... So she earned 41 points from Birmingham tournament, which should secure her 15th ranking before Wimbledon..btw, Wimbledon draw will be announced tomorrow - let's see if Dominique manages to get seeding... |
| 11 June - At least some news and results from England. As Dominique got first round bye, she didn't have to play until today (partly because of rain as well). In second round she defeated "lucky loser" Karin Miller in straight sets 6-4 6-0. Even third round matches were played today and Dominique was leading Mariaan De Swardt 7-5 1-1 when the match was suspended because of rain... Hopefully Dominique manages to continue as well as she has done it until now... If she wins this one, whe will meet Elena Likhovtseva in quarterfinals. |
| 9 June - Dominique will soon reach one important milestone in her career - $ 1 million career prize money! Now it's $ 933 926. In this year's prize money ranking she is 15th with $ 206 759 earned. |
| 8 June - Some more comments about rankings - Dominique is 15th again with 1862 T and 644 Q points and she has to defend 37 points this week - it seems to be a bit less than I expected, but... Movements in the field of doubles ranking have been much better - Dominique is ranked 40th now, so it was climb about 4 spots again! Good! Now she has 827,5 T and 116,5 Q points - she got 48 points from French Open and has to defend 27 this week. In the Race to Chase Dominique is 9th now, with 1060 points!!! |
| 8 June - Birmingham draw is announced - Dominique is 4th seed as Steffi Graf accepted a wildcard and is 1st seed. Dominique got first round bye and will meet Miko Saeki or qualifier in second round and in third round she may meet her doubles partner Flo, who is 15th seed. In doubles tournament they are 7th seeds and will meet Cristea/Singer in first round. Good luck for Dominique, both in singles and doubles!!! |
| 8 June - At first official points from French Open - Dominique earned 68 points this year - so she got +3 comparing with last year - at least some improvement, although the reached round remained the same. |
| 4 June - Now there some statistics can be found about Dominique's matches at French Open - statistics as it was shown via Scoreboard, giving sort of feeling of "net-watching"... Check it out, it's quite interesting... |
| 3 June - Some thoughts about Dominque's doubles ranking - she has 781 T and 112,5 Q points, win in Madrid gave her additional 147 points. I'm not so aware about her doubles career (yet...), but it seems to me that she achieved her career best doubles ranking by winning this tournament - it was at least huge improvement from 62th spot up to 44th! Nice... |
| 2 June - Next week Dominque will play in Birmingham, tier III event where she is 3rd seed after Spirlea and Tauziat. She has to defend quite a lot of points there, as she reached to quarterfinal last year (lost to 1st seed Spirlea). Hopefully she manages to perform even better this year!!! |
| 2 June - Some news about ranking as there haven't been any for some time... Dominique was ranked 15th some weeks, but now she is 14th again (in front of Sandrine Testud!!!) with 1859 T and 641 Q points. She had to defend 65 points at French Open - and at least my "counting" show that she managed to do it - +90. But of course, it isn't the exact number - let's wait until next week for official points... |
| 2 June - Yesssss! Now it's confirmed - Dominique and Flo won the doubles final in Madrid 6-3 6-1!!! Now Dominique has already 3 doubles titles as well! And for Flo it's the first doubles title since 1992! They should definitely continue this "teaming".... |
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| News from the beginning of April to French Open (including Fed Cup) |
| Older news (from the beginning of year 1998) |
