The Damir Question

And so the wildcards have been decided. In the men's draw, Colin Ebelthite will go through. In the women's, Jelena Dokic.

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Both results are, in their way, surprising - Ebelthite most of all. Thus, let's start with Dokic. She's definitely got the most experience and Grand Slam time under her belt, so it would have been a bit of a slap in the face if she hadn't come through, but how about some of the competition she faced? I cannot speak too highly of Monica Wejnert - she is going to be pretty good one day, mark my words. She really took it to Jelena - the score was 6-7 (3-7) 7-5 6-3, so it was pretty tight the whole way. She needs some experience yet, I suppose, but that's only time... she's only sixteen. So I think she can be pretty proud of herself - and the junior Australian Open had better watch out next year!

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Dokic has been off the Australian sporting radar for some years now, but she's still remembered - more for her father than anything else. Thus, with her back in the main draw instead of losing in qualies where she can be safely ignored, it's going to be very interesting to see how Australia reacts. We are no stranger to generally liking toolface tennis players - look at the BecnLleyton phenomenon - but Damir Dokic was something else. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that more people remember him than Jelena herself. In my understanding, she was a bit of a victim - torn between what her dad wanted her to do and what Tennis Australia wanted her to do and the world and herself, and it was all just nasty and bad.

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So will Damir show at the Australian Open? If so, you can bet that no one will take too kindly to Jelena... but if she shows up independently of him, then we might be cooking with fire...

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And how 'bout Colin Ebelthite, huh? A few days ago it was pretty much assumed that Bernard Tomic would take his place in the knockout portion of the tournament, and here he is winning the whole damn tournament. It was a tough match against Sam Groth - 1-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 6-4 - but Ebelthite pulled it out. He's never played in a Slam before, so what an opportunity for him! Nice one, Colin!