The fourth night of action on Rod Laver Arena began with the latest Australian female to be afforded the chance to lose in front of a large crowd including a massive TV audience. Jelena Dokic had the pleasure of 9th seed French player Marion Bartoli's company for the second round match, although the depth of the pleasure reduced quickly as the battle waged.
Marion set things up on the back of a strong and consistent serve, and Jelena lacked consistency in most of what she tried after the first few games. The body language of the two was poles apart - Dokic with little reaction to anything she did, no visible disappointment at the inopportune double faults or netted forehands, and no look of happiness when the occasional winner flew from the racquet. Bartoli was as always constantly jumping around, shadow sword fighting with her racquet between points and generally appearing to have a major interest in the outcome of each phase of the contest.
Dokic showed that she had the basic shots to match it with Bartoli, and even achieved a break of serve to match Bartoli early. However, a shocking service game at 3-4 represented the exit of any confidence and belief that she (Dokic) could defeat the semi finalist from Roland Garros last year.
Marion served out the first set 6-3 and with valuable support from Jelena soon jumped to a lead in the second. Bartoli savaged the Dokic second serve and this assisted in the build up of pressure too much for Dokic to handle and service break number two confirmed the earlier writing on the wall - Marion Bartoli had been granted an entry visa to round three at Melbourne Park, winning 6-3 6-2.
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