Meilen News  (links may expire without notice) Kroger St Jude title for Meilen and Asa - 22 February 2004 Meilen is the Circuit Player of the week - 11 November 2003 Meilen Tu: For Love of the Game (Women's Sports Foundation) Meilen vs Akiko in Acura Qualifying - 23 July 2003 DFS Classic Doubles Title for Meilen and Els - 15 June 2003 Meilen collapses after Nasdaq victory - 20 March 2003 Meilen collapses as heat soars in Miami - 20 March 2003 Big Island Championship Doubles Final - 15 September 2002 Best of the West 1st round victory for Meilen - 22 July 2002 Meilen defeats Angelique Widjaja at Wimbledon - 27 June 2002 First round upset to Meilen at Family Circle - 16 April 2002 Meilen Seeded for ASB Bank Classic - 31 December 2002 Praise for Meilen after loss to Venus - 16 February 2001 US Open 2nd round loss to Arantxa Sanchez - 28 August 1997 Meilen Updates 2003 In Detail November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 2003 Summary 2002 Summary 2001 Summary Year-end Rankings

2003 In Detail

November 2003

November saw Meilen compete in two ITF tournaments. The first, in Pittsburgh saw her form from Quebec continue to improve as she made the singles final against Teryn Ashley and with partner Argentine Gisela Dulko she made the doubles final. On her way to the singles final Meilen defeated Andrea Vanc 6-0 6-2, avenged her Albuqureque loss to Tara Snyder 6-1 6-7 6-1, defeated the higher ranked Lilia Osterloh 3-0 Retired and Alina Jidkova 6-3 6-4 before losing the final in three sets to Teryn Ashley 6-1 3-6 3-6. Meilen picked up 36.5 points from this tournament and pushed her ranking from 163 up more than 20 places to 141. In the doubles she and Gisela had a good run of victories before losing the final in three sets to Amy Frazier and Janet Lee 63 16 26. Following Pittsburgh the season went quiet for Meilen with a first round loss to Mara Santangelo of Italy at Eugene.

October 2003

Meilen played one ITF tournaments at Sedona in October, losing to Kristina Brandi in the first round. She followed this up at the Quebec City tournament with three straight sets qualifying victories over Vilmarie Castellvi, Alyssa Cohen and Caroline Carpenter. However, she was outplayed by Venezuelan Miligros Sequera in the first round. Meilen did pick up 10.25 points in Quebec and started moving back in a winning direction.

September 2003

September saw Meilen return to the U.S. ITF circuit with some lower than expected results. In Columbus Ohio Meilen lost in the first round to Rika Fujiwara. She followed that up with a win against Marissa Irvin in Albuquerque but lost in straight sets in the second round to Tara Snyder. Meilen completed September with a loss to Australian Christina Wheeler in Troy.

August 2003

August was a low-key month for Meilen until the US Open doubles where she and partner Els Callens broke through to the third round with victories over Lee & Prakusya (3-6 6-3 7-6) in round 1 and Granville and Stevenson (6-2 6-1)in round two. Meilen had made the second round doubles at the previous 8 grand slam events so it was a great achievement to pass this mark at Flushing Meadow. Unfortunately rain postponed matches into September. Fluctuating success in singles was compensated by maintaining a low 40's ranking in doubles with matches featuring a lot of familiar names. In Toronto Meilen and Els suffered a quick demise in round one against Angelique Widjaja and former Big Island partner Maria Vento-Kabchi. Widjaja and Vento-Kabchi went on to contest the final. Prior to this Meilen teamed with Janet Lee at Los Angeles and made a promising bid defeating Maleeva and Widjaja after coming back from 6-0 down to take the first set 0-6 7-6 6-3. However, they were defeated 5-7 3-6 by Bovina and regular partner Els Callens in the second round. Bovina and Callens also went on to contest the final. San Diego started the month with a first round defeat with Krizan. Singles saw mixed success and Meilen missing some opportunities to rebuild her ranking. After her promising victory over no.70 ranked Akiko Morigami and her Lucky Loser advance into the second round Meilen fought a hard 3 set loss to Svetlana Kuznetsova (3-6 6-4 6-7). Los Angeles pitted Meilen against Angelique Widjaja, yet again, with Angelique victorious 6-4 6-2. Toronto saw Meilen's first successful qualification after defeating seeded Janette Husarova 2-6 6-2 6-1 before falling in the first round to Fabiola Zuluaga 3-6 2-6. Singles competition for the month ended with a first round qualifying defeat at the US Open. The 3 hour 11 minute 3 set match against Maria Geznenge (6-7 7-6 4-6) took it's toll on both players.

July 2003

Due to the Wimbledon finals and the Federation Cup July was a quiet month for international women's tennis competition. Meilen's first appearance was in the ITF tournament at Oyster Bay in New York where she fell in the first round to Anna-Lena Groenfeld. This was followed by a second first round defeat in an ITF tournament when beaten 4-6 6-7 by Yuka Yoshida at Lexington. Some success finally came in the Acura Classic qualifying where Meilen defeated no.70 ranked Akiko Morigami 6-4 6-1 before falling to Alina Jidkova in the second round. Her doubles foray didn't fare much better when she teamed with Tina Krizan but was defeated 3-6 3-6 in the first round by the pairing of Huber and Maleeva. It was disappointing for fan's of Meilen that she wasn't awarded a wild card for any of her Californian home tournaments - The Bank of the West Classic, The Acura Classic and the JP Morgan Chase Open. Hopefully in the coming weeks Meilen can gain enough match time to prepare for the US Open in August.

June 2003

From Europe's clay to England's grass, Meilen arrived in the UK to prepare for Wimbledon. The lead-up tournament, the DFS Classic in Birmingham provided a lot of grasscourt play as Meilen had two qualifying victories, over Rao and Dulko before defeating fellow qualifier Yuka Yoshida in round 1. The tournament second Daniilidou proved too strong in round 2 but Meilen's tournament continued in the doubles. Pairing with Els Callens for the second time proved a successful endeavour. After defeating Morariu and Stubbs in round 1, Dhenin and Jayaseelan in round 2, Musgrave and Tatarkova in the semi-final Meilen and Els then defeated Navratilova and Molik to take the DFS Classic title. Meilen's third WTA doubles title and first for 2003. Considering her Birmingham form and a ranking of 108 it was surprising that Meilen competed in the Wimbledon qualifiers. Having made the third round last year there was hope of a good tournament this year. After a first round qualifying victory over Zdenovcova, Meilen fell to Janet Lee in the next round, failing to qualify for the main draw. The focus was now on doubles and after their good form at Roland Garros and in Birmingham hopes were high for Meilen and Els. A 6-0 6-0 first round victory over Augustus and Embry set the scene for a great tournament but sadly hopes were crushed by Dementieva and Krasnoroutskaya in the second round. Meilen's 8th straight second round doubles finish in grand slams.

May 2003

May saw Meilen competing in Europe, preparing for the French Open at Roland Garros. Her sliding singles rank meant she now had to play more qualifying tournaments. May began with a 3 set first round qualifier loss to Garbin in Berlin. Meilen turned her form around picking up 19.5 points at the Italian Open in Rome with two qualifying victories against Craybas and Kirilenko before falling to Ruano Pascual in the first round. This was followed by two qualifying victories against Perry and Rousseau before losing the final qualifying match in 3 sets to the higher seeded Jelena Kostanic in Strasbourg. Roland Garros was the scene of another hard-fought 3 set loss to a seeded player in round one of a Grand Slam as Meilen fell to compatriot Laura Granville 1-6 6-1 6-4. The big news from Roland Garros came in the doubles where Meilen partnered Belgian Els Callens for the first time. Their straight-sets first round defeat of seeded Lee and Prakusya and commendable 3 set second round loss to Daniilidou and Grande would be the beginning of a significant new doubles partnership for Meilen. Who maintained her record of reaching the second round doubles of 7 consecutive grand slams.

April 2003

After a hard-fought return to competition in March Meilen's form dropped in April as she suffered three consecutive first round losses. Competing at Charleston as a Wild Card Meilen lost to Panova 7-5 7-5. The next loss came the following week at Amelia Island, 4-6 7-5 7-6(4) to Matevzic. Then 6-1 6-3 to qualifier Leon-Garcia at Bol. The highlight for April was reaching the doubles semi-final at Amelia Island with Big Island partner Maria Vento-Kabchi.

March 2003

Returning from injury Meilen restarted her 2003 campaign in the ITF St Pauls tournament. Although seeded at no. 1 this was Meilen's first competition for over a month and she made a reasonable start, losing the quarter-final to 8th seed Voracova. A solid 2 round performance at Indian Wells, defeating Roesch in round 1 before falling to 25th seed Likhovtseva marked Meilen's return to WTA competition. The now legendary Nasdaq 100 match in soaring heat against Bethanie Mattek brought high praise for both players (see articles above). However, heat exhaustion and being stretchered from the court was not ideal preparation to play the 13th seed Magdalena Maleeva in the second round.

February 2003

Competition was suspended for Meilen in February due to a left abdominal strain. Meilen withdrew from the Paris Indoors and Memphis tournaments. Withdrawing from the Paris Indoor (Open Gaz de France) meant Meilen was unable to defend her doubles title. Meilen's singles ranking dropped to 99 during her injury period, while her doubles rank dropped to 60.

January 2003

Meilen returned down-under in preparation for the Australian Open. Appearing again at the ASB Bank Classic in Auckland, the event that brought her first WTA singles title two years earlier, Meilen made a positive start with a three set win over Sucha. However, a second round loss to Jill Craybas ended her bid for a second ASB title. A first round loss at the Canberra Women's Classic cut short her preparation for the upcoming open, which ended with a hard fought but disappointing 3 set loss in the first round to the no. 14 seed Anna Pistolesi. With Nathalie Dechy partnering fellow Frenchwoman Emilie Loit, Meilen teamed up with Australian local Rachel McQuillan. The pair making the second round of an Open in their first tournament together.


2003 Summary

2003 was a year marked by recurring injury and on-court adversity that saw Meilen's singles ranking drop as low as 167. However, Meilen turned this around by year end and started climbing back up the rankings table. After the split of her successful doubles partnership with Nathalie Dechy Meilen partnered a number of players until a successful combination with Els Callens resulted in her third WTA Doubles Title in Birmingham UK. Despite the changes Meilen maintained a doubles ranking in the 40's. At 41 that ranking is only 7 places off her personal best Doubles ranking.

January - Lost 2r to Craybas at Auckland; suffered back-to-back 1r losses: at Canberra to Bartoli and at Australian Open to No. 14 seed Pistolesi in 3s February - Withdrew from Paris Indoors and Memphis due to left abdominal strain March - Lost 2r in back-to-back appearances: at Indian Wells to No. 25 seed Likhovtseva and at Miami to No. 13 seed Mag. Maleeva; suffered heat exhaustion following 1r Miami win over Mattek 61 67(4) 76(4) and left the court on a stretcher April - Suffered three back-to-back 1r losses: as a WC at Charleston to Panova 75 75, at Amelia Island to Matevzic 46 75 76(4), where she reached doubles SF w/Vento-Kabchi, and to qualifier Leon Garcia at Bol May - Qualified for Italian Open and l. 1r to Ruano Pascual; l. in 1r at Roland Garros to No. 31 seed Granville June - Qualified for Birmingham and d. fellow qualifier Yoshida before l. to No. 2 seed Daniilidou in 2r and playing together w/Callens a career second time, d. WC team Navratilova/Molik for doubles title, the third of her career July - As world No. 139, received 1r bye as a LL at San Diego (when No. 1 seed withdrew), l. opening match to No. 29 Kuznetsova August - As a world No. 162 Canadian Open qualifier, l. 1r to world No. 35 Zuluaga October - As a world No. 168 qualifier, l. 1r at Quebec City to world No. 91 eventual first-time finalist Sequera, and as No. 1 seeds w/Callens, reached second 2003 doubles final together (won Birmingham), l. to No. 4 seeds Li/Sun November - Finalist in singles and doubles at ITF/Pittsburgh-USA

2002 Summary

2002 was a big year for Meilen, particularly in doubles. After winning the Open Gaz de France with Nathalie Dechy and the Big Island Championships with Maria Vento-Kabchi Meilen's ranking soared to 35. The Open Gaz de France title and two other finals, Antwerp and Bratislava, lifted Meilen and Nathalie to 12th place in the Porsche Race to the Championships. Unfortunately, just outside the qualifying top 10 teams.

As defending champion, l. 1r to Sfar at Auckland; reached QF at Hobart before falling to Pratt; l. Australian Open 2r to defending and eventual champion Capriati; LL at Paris and l. 2r to No. 1 seed V. Williams; won Paris doubles title, her first on the Tour, w/Dechy when Dementieva/Husarova conceded the final by walkover due to Dementieva having bronchitis; reached 2r Antwerp l. to No. 6 seed Mag. Maleeva; reached Antwerp doubles final w/Dechy; fell 1r at Scottsdale to Pratt; l. 1r Indian Wells to Dominikovic; at Miami, lost in 1r to Poutchek in close 3s; l. 2r Amelia Island to Gagliardi in 3s; upset No. 15 seed Panova in Charleston before l. 2r to qualifier Fusai; withdrew from Bol with right elbow injury; l. German Open 2r to No. 1 seed Capriati; fell 1r Roland Garros to Frazier; recorded her best Grand Slam result at Wimbledon, saving six set points against Widjaja en route to 3r l. to No. 20 seed Tanasugarn in 3s; l. Stanford 2r to No. 4 seed Clijsters; also l. 2r San Diego to No. 13 seed Shaughnessy; fell 1r Los Angeles to Panova; lucky loser into Canadian Open l. to Zuluaga in three sets in 2r; fell 1r US Open to qualifier Chladkova; at Waikoloa won her second doubles title of the year and career, w/Vento-Kabchi; No. 5 seed, was upset in 2r by Craybas; upset in Quebec City 2r by Rodionova; failed to qualify for Filderstadt and l. 1r at Bratislava; reached Bratislava doubles final (w/Dechy), d. No. 1 seeds Black/Likhovtseva in SF

2001 Summary

Won her first title at Auckland with wins over seeds Brandi, Suarez and Osterloh; dedicated the title to her father who passed away in 1999; reached Nice QF and ranking cracked the top 50 for the first time at No. 44; unseeded QF at Tokyo Princess Cup; ousted No. 7 seed Kremer en route to Luxembourg QF; reached career-high rankings in singles of No. 36 and doubles of No. 78

Year-end Rankings

Singles: 2003-143; 2002-73; 2001-45; 2000-67; 1999-104; 1998-204 (Injury Ranking: 101); 1997-79; 1996-140; 1995-159; 1994-158
Doubles: 2003-41; 2002-35

back to top

Disclaimer | best@1024x768 | Home | Highlights | Gallery | Add Message | View Messages | Email