By Ken Miller, Lawn Tennis Correspondent, Posted: Monday, January 26, 2009 6:30pm PST USA

MELBOURNE--(lawntennismag.com) Australia went one for two after Lleyton Hewitt of Australia lost last week. Jelena Dokic of Australia however went four for four as she continued her surprising run into the women's quarterfinals. After Hewitt was defeated by Fernando Gonzalez of Chile in five sets, Australia looked to Dokic alone to star as its Australian tennis powerhouse and Dokic at the Australian Open this year failed to disappoint. Dokic in December won five matches in a lead up tournament to Melbourne to earn a maindraw wildcard after reconciling with Tennis Australia after some rocky years past. Dokic represented the country of Australia after turning professional in 1998 for three years before switching to Serbia and Montenegro from 2001 to 2005. And now in her comeback to tennis this year after several prior years of personal setbacks and falsestarts, Dokic and the country of Australia have embraced each other with open arms. The 25 year old Dokic ranked 187th in the world but fast rising lost to former world number one Amelie Mauresmo of France at Brisbane earlier this month 7-6(9-7), 7-6(7-5) before finding her form at Melbourne last week. Dokic has blossomed under the night lights at the Australian Open, in the superstar Jelena Dokic of Australia | Image: Getty

In 1999, Dokic as a qualifier recorded her breakthrough win as she surprised the world and the world number one Martina Hingis of Switzerland 6-2, 6-0 in the first round at Wimbledon. primetime position, winning four matches in a row while going the distance, three sets in all four matches. In her last three rounds of play, the unseeded Dokic defeated 17th seeded Anna Chakvetadze of Russia, 11th seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark and 29th seeded Alisa Kleybanova of Russia. Tuesday night in the quarterfinals, Dokic meets the third seeded Dinara Safina of Russia in yet another night match. Dokic's previous best Australian Open performance was a 3rd round finish in 1999. Later that same year, Dokic as a qualifier recorded her breakthrough win as she surprised the world and the world number one Martina Hingis of Switzerland 6-2, 6-0 in the first round at Wimbledon. A year later in 2000, Dokic reached the Wimbledon semifinals in her best grand slam result to date and soared to her career highest ranking of four in 2002. And although Dokic would like to go further into this year's Australian Open, she admitted after her last match "I really struggled physically. I was on my last reserves." Share: Facebook Digg