Petered Out Talents 1
July 1, 2008This is the first of a series of articles of wonderful talents who rose to prominence suddenly, and then petered out almost as quickly. In musical terms, you would call them one-hit wonders, just that in sport nothing is serendipitous. These people surely had the the talent, just that it never did materialize into something spectacular, which, indeed, was what their first tryst with the spotlight promised.
1. Jelena Dokic and Alexandra Stevenson.
They came into prominence simultaneously, at the 1999 Wimbledon. Dokic (armed with the baddest-ass of all the bad-ass tennis fathers, Damir) hit the headlines in the first round with a shocking 6-2, 6-0 demolition of Martina Hingis, and followed it up with the scalp of Mary Pierce. Stevenson (who could have been the first famous sporting daughter of a famous NBA father, whom the father acknowledges only after she made it big, pipping Cheryl Ford by 3 years. She is the daughter of Dr J, Julius Erving) beat Lisa Raymond and then Dokic in the quarters to move to the semis, where she gave Lindsay Davenport a right scare. Young, pretty, with the whole world for them to reach….
We heard a little about them post that Wimbledon, and Dokic was even a top-10 player for a little while. But that’s it…..
Gave Lindsay a scare you and I could’ve been watching the same match Lindsay belted Alex 6-1 6-1 that’s hardly scary.
Good you noticed. I did realise the mistake, and that I was thinking about the other semi finals in my head when I wrote that, but of course the other semi-final, and the lady in question, requires an article of her own…
Thanks for pointing out though. And you are correct.
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