Qatar Total Open - Doha

Another week and another tournament for Lina, in this instance its another chance for her to kick start her disappointing season, hopefully with a win. After another disappointing performance in her last tournament, a first round loss against Ai Sugiyama, she will be hopeful to avoid defeat.

The draw for this years Qatar Total Open offers Lina with some very tough matches all the way to the final. In the 1^st round she is faced with a match against the Italian Silvia Farina Elia. At first glance this match looks like offering Lina with a stern challenge but her overall record against her is quite impressive, 4 meetings and 4 wins for Krasnoroutskaya.  Of course the flip side to this coin is that Farina Elia is long due a win and coupled with Lina’s up and down start to the season, a victory for the Italian would not be out of the question.

Silvia Farina-Elia

Country - Italy

Age – 31

Highest Ranking Position – 11 (2002)

WTA Tour Titles – 3

WTA Doubles Titles - 8

ITF Circuit Titles – 2 

Following on from her last 2 tournaments Lina faces the prospect of a hat-trick of 1^st round defeats. On the current form of both players you would have to say that Lina has to play some of her best tennis of the season if she wishes to avoid this 3 in a row scenario.  However she does posses the game to beat Farina Elia - as she has proved in all of her previous meetings with her. The Italian is not known for her big shot making, she does however have a very strong all-court game and a high level of match fitness. In 2002 this mix of skills propelled her to the dizzy heights of number 12 in the world, her highest WTA ranking to date. On paper Lina should win this contest, in all the other matches against Elia she has overpowered her and won with some degree of comfort, especially in her two meetings against her last year where she won both matches without dropping a single set.

So taking all of the above into account I predict a very tough match for both players but in the end I see Lina coming out as the victor – in a tough 3 set match.

If Lina does beat Elia she is then faced with the prospect of playing either the on form Petra Mandula or the Croatian Jelena Kostanic. She has never infact played either of these two players before so a prediction as to the outcome of either match is difficult. You can say though that neither opponent would offer Lina with an easy pass into the quarter finals but if given the choice she would like to avoid Mandula. Petra Mandula who of course beat Jelena Dokic in Dubai is playing some of the best tennis of her career at present and would provide a very tough obstacle for Lina to pass. Kostanic on the other hand has never broken in to the top 60 of the WTA and would provide her with the easier match.

Going to form, the quarters finals could see Lina play American Jennifer Capriati and this is where I see the tournament coming to an end for her. Jennifer is perhaps a step too far for Lina at the moment and although she would push her hard I don’t feel she has enough to beat her on current form.

PREDICTION

1^st Round – Lina def. Farina-Elia:  3 Sets

2^nd Round – Lina def. Petra Mandula:  3sets

Quarter Finals – Capriati def. Lina: 2 sets

Good Luck Lina

Richard Paveley

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