It's time to hit the panic button.
JJ's losing. And it's not just that she's losing. She's losing *badly*. Whether it be her absolutely WTF performance against Mono at AO, getting overpowered by an inspired upstart at IW, or just completely crumbling and blowing leads left and right to lost in straight sets in her "home" tourney, it is just a whole lot of ugly in the JJ camp. And I haven't even mentioned her dress.
I've already ranted on the state of JJ's game, which now we know she blames on the additional muscle weight she put on in the off-season. She's suffering from a complete lack of confidence and she's lost her competitive edge, which, at the end of the day is the thing that separates the top elite players from the rest of the pack:
you pinpoint...
JELENA JANKOVIC: I just need to, you know, get into -- because for three months I wasn't
in this situation when I'm winning matches. Normally it comes for you as a habit, which
happened last year and the year before where I won so many matches. All I knew is how to win
matches. No matter what, even if it's -- I'm down a set at 5-Love, I still have that belief and confidence I'm going to win, I'm going to stay in the match, and at the end of the day I'm going to come out as a winner.
And now I need to find that habit again, find a habit of winning matches and playing poorly,
whatever, tired, not tired, don't feel the shots, whatever it is. My opponent plays great. I need to
find a way to win, and that's what I'm looking for. Hopefully I'm going to find that, you know,
confidence and that, you know, the whole construction of my game sometime soon. That's
all. I mean, it's very disappointing, and it's very difficult sometimes, but that's the way it goes.
That's not the fun and giggly JJ we know. That's a lost and confused JJ who has no idea how she could blow a 5-2 lead in the second set AND a 5-2 lead in the tiebreak to lose in straights to Gisela Dulko. She's fired Pat Etcheberry as her fitness coach and I kinda wish she'd get rid of Real Tennis Ricardo. But I worry because she sounds like she's getting down on herself. Sometimes that ignorant arrogance serves you well, JJ. This might be one of those times.
