Elena Dementieva (born October 15, 1981, Moscow), is a professional tennis player from Russia. Tennis career Dementieva played and won her first international tournament, Les Petit As, in France at the age of 13. In 1997, she entered the WTA top 500. She turned professional in 1998 and entered the top 100 in 1999. 1999-2002 In 1999, Dementieva represented Russia in the Fed Cup final against the United States, scoring Russia's only point when she upset Venus Williams 16, 63, 76(5), recovering from a 41 third set deficit. She played her first Grand Slam main draws, qualifying for the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon and receiving a direct entry into the U.S. Open. She reached the second round at the Australian Open and French Open, made a first round exit at Wimbledon, and reached the third round of the U.S. Open. In 2000, Elena Dementieva entered the top 20 by winning more than 40 singles matches for the second straight year and earned more than U.S. $600,000. She became the first woman from Russia to reach the U.S. Open semifinals, where she lost to Lindsay Davenport. . At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Dementieva won the silver medal, losing to Venus Williams in the gold medal match 62, 64. In 2000, Dementieva was named the WTA tour's Most Improved Player. 2001 was the second straight year in which Dementieva finished in the WTA's top 20. During the year, she became the top ranked Russian player, a position previously held by Anna Kournikova since December 1997. Dementieva, however, suffered a shoulder injury in Australia. To keep playing matches, she altered her serve, adding slice and changing her motion. After her shoulder healed, her service motion stayed the same, and many consider it the worst serve among the top players. Elena Dementieva has double faulted as many as 19 times in a match and hit 50 mph first and second serves. Where the ball toss should be in the "1 o'clock position" (if a clock was placed above the server's head, the ball should be tossed where 1 o'clock was) she was tossing them at 2 o'clock. In 2002, Dementieva and her partner Janette Husarova of Slovakia reached the final of the U.S. Open and won the year-ending WTA Tour Championships. In singles, Dementieva defeated a top ranked player for the first time, beating world No. 1 Martina Hingis 62, 62 in a quarterfinal in Moscow. Dementieva reached the final of that tournament, losing to Jelena Jankovic. 2003 Elena Dementieva played the most tournaments among year-end top ten players (27) and won US$869,740 in prize money. At the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida, she won her first WTA Tour title, defeating Amanda Coetzer, World No. 9 Daniela Hantuchova, World No. 4 Justine Henin, and World No. 5 Lindsay Davenport. Dementieva was the lowest seed (tenth) to win the tournament in its 24-year history. She also won back-to-back titles in Bali and Shanghai, defeating Chanda Rubin in both finals. Dementieva finished the year in the top 10 for the first time (World No. 8). In addition, she reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon doubles with compatriot Lina Krasnoroutskaya, beating the Venus and Serena Williams team along the way. 2004 Dementieva's breakthrough year was 2004. In Miami, she defeated Venus Williams in the quarterfinals and Nadia Petrova in the semifinals. Elena Dementieva then lost to the top seeded and two-time defending champion Serena Williams 61, 61. On April 5, she reached her highest singles ranking at sixth in the world. With fifth ranked Anastasia Myskina and ninth ranked Petrova, it was the first time that three Russians appeared in the Women's Tennis Association top 10 simultaneously. In May at the French Open, Dementieva reached her first Grand Slam final, defeating former top ranked Lindsay Davenport in the fourth round, Amelie Mauresmo in the quarterfinals, and Paola Suarez in the semifinals, all in straight sets. Dementieva lost to compatriot Anastasia Myskina in the first all-Russian Grand Slam final. (The last female Russian Grand Slam finalist was Dementieva's coach at the time, Olga Morozova, at 1974's French Open and Wimbledon.) Later that year at the U.S. Open, after a first round loss at Wimbledon to Sandra Kleinova, Elena Dementieva reached her second Grand Slam final, defeating Mauresmo and Jennifer Capriati en route. Countrywoman Svetlana Kuznetsovadefeated Dementieva in straight sets in the final, becoming the third consecutive Russian Grand Slam winner. Following the U.S. Open, Dementieva won her first title in Hasselt and reached the Moscow finals for the second time, losing to Myskina.
2005 In 2005, Dementieva reached six semifinals, the most important being at the U.S. Open. She also reached the final in Charleston, losing to Justine Henin, and Philadelphia, losing to Amelie Mauresmo despite serving for the match at 54 in the third set. In the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, Elena Dementieva defeated top ranked Lindsay Davenport 61, 36, 76(6) for her second victory over a current No. 1 player. In the semifinals, she lost to Mary Pierce 36, 62, 62. The momentum of the match with Pierce changed in Pierce's favor when, with Dementieva up a set, Pierce received 12 minutes of on-court medical treatment. Partnering Flavia Pennettaof Italy, Elena Dementieva reached her second doubles final at the U.S. Open. Following the U.S. Open, Dementieva helped Russia repeat as Fed Cup champions, beating France 32 in the final. All three points came from Dementieva, as she avenged her loss to Pierce at the U.S. Open, beat Mauresmo, and then won the deciding doubles match with partner Dinara Safina. At the WTA Tour Championships, Elena Dementieva lost all three round robin matches against Mauresmo, Mary Pierce, and Kim Clijsters with the same score each time: 62, 63. 2006 After losing to Kim Clijsters in an exhibition in Hong Kong, she lost in the first round of the Australian Open to Julia Schruff. But immediately following that tournament, Dementieva won her first Tier I event, the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. On the run to the title, she defeated Katarina Srebotnik, Nicole Vaidisova, and Anastasia Myskina, all in three sets. She then defeated the resurgent Martina Hingis, with Hingis saying after the match, "If she played like that all the time, she'd win Grand Slams." At the Pacific Life Open, despite double faulting 79 times in six matches, Elena Dementieva reached the final. She defeated rising stars Sania Mirza, Ana Ivanovic, and Na Li along the way. Dementieva then upset Justine Henin in a semifinal 26, 75, 75. The victory was her fourth three set match of the tournament, and fatigue contributed to her 61, 62 loss to Maria Sharapova in the final. On grass, Dementieva reached the s'Hertogenbosch semifinals, losing to Michaella Krajicek despite holding a match point, and the Wimbledon quarterfinals. At Wimbledon, Dementieva lost to fourth seeded Maria Sharapova 61, 64. In August, Dementieva won the tournament in Los Angeles by defeating Jelena Jankovic in the final 63, 46, 64. En route to her sixth career title, she defeated everyone who had beaten (or, in the case of the U.S. Open, would beat) her at the 2006 Grand Slam tournamentsSchruff in the second round, Peer in the third round, Sharapova in a semifinal (for the first time since 2003), and Jankovic in the final. At the 2006 U.S. Open, Elena Dementieva reached the quarterfinals for the fourth time, losing to Jankovic 62, 61. The three games she won were all breaks of serve. Dementieva remarked afterwards, "Yeah, it is disappointing, you know. I'm getting older, and I haven't won a Grand Slam, so that's really what I'm thinking about all the time. I feel like I was in a good shape here. That's why it's sad.". She relinquished to Sharapova, who won the tournament, the distinction of being the Russian player to have won the most career prize money. Dementieva qualified for the year-ending WTA Tour Championships for the seventh straight time, the only active player to do so. She lost to all three players in her round robin group: Sharapova 61, 6-4; Svetlana Kuznetsova 75, 6-3; and Clijsters 64, 60. Her career win-loss record at this tournament fell to 3-14. She had lost her last 9 matches played there. 2007 In 2007 Elena Dementieva won two titles and reached three semifinals with five quarterfinal appearances as well, with her best showing at the slams in Australia, reaching the fourth round. After her first semifinal of the year in Tokyo, Dementieva had a rib fracture in Antwerp, retiring in the second round, and was off the tour for nine weeks, leaving the top 10 for the first time in April after nearly four years at the top. Dementieva won her fourth event back on tour at the Tier III event in Istanbul, her first title on red clay. She was upset in the third round of the French Open by Marion Bartoli the following week. Three weeks later she lost to Bartoli again in the quarterfinals of Eastbourne 61, 60 for her worst, score-wise, loss of the year. She reached the San Diego and New Haven semifinals and Los Angeles quarterfinals in the summer hardcourt season, with early losses in Toronto and the US Open.
Winning the title returned Dementieva to the top 10 at #10 for one week, but failing to gain any points in Zurich, her last event for the year, pushed her to #11 the following week. 2007 was the first year since 2002 Dementieva did not finish the season top 10, nor secure a spot at the Year-End Championships. 2008 At the Medibank International tournament in Sydney, Elena Dementieva lost in the first round to Sofia Arvidsson 61, 75. Dementieva then reached the fourth round of the Australian Open in Melbourne before losing to eventual champion Maria Sharapova 62, 60. Dementieva then travelled to Paris for the Tier II Open Gaz de France indoor tournament. She reached the semifinals before succumbing to seventh-seeded Agnes Szavay from Hungary 63, 16, 75. Dementieva then won the Tier II, U.S.$1.5 million Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, defeating second-seeded compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final. This was Dementieva's fourth career Tier II tournament title but her first since 2006. Along the way, she defeated Patty Schnyder, Alyona Bondarenko, World No. 2 Ana Ivanovic, and Francesca Schiavone (who defeated World No. 1 and defending champion Justine Henin in the quarterfinals). At the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Elena Dementieva lost in the quarterfinals to Jelena Jankovic. This performance caused her ranking to rise to World No. 8. At the Tier I Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina, Dementieva lost in the semifinals to compatriot Vera Zvonareva. Her ranking then dropped to World No. 9. Dementieva was the seventh-seeded player at the Tier I Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin but reached the final, where she lost to thirteenth-seeded Dinara Safina. Dementieva defeated fourth-seeded Jankovic in the quarterfinals and second-seeded Ivanovic in the semifinals. Dementieva's win over Ivanovic was her fourth in four career matches with Ivanovic. Her next tournament was the Istanbul Cup in Istanbul, Turkey where Elena Dementieva was the top seed and defending champion. She reached the final but was unsuccessful in her attempt to win a singles title at the same tournament in consecutive years, which would have been a career first. Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland defeated Dementieva in the final. At the French Open, Dementieva defeated eleventh-seeded Zvonareva in the fourth round 64, 16, 62 but lost her quarterfinal match against Safina 46, 76(5), 60 after Dementieva had a match point while leading 52 in the second set. Dementieva became the World No. 5 player on June 9, 2008. Playing style Elena Dementieva is a fast, powerful and aggressive baseliner known for her outstanding offensive and defensive abilities off the ground. Her forehand in particular is a fearsome weapon due to the power and placement of the shot and her ability to flatten it out. However, her serve is very inconsistent and considered one of the worst on the WTA Tour, especially in tight situations. Grand Slam singles finals Runner-ups (2) Other notable matches * 2001 Moscow quarterfinal: defeated a World No. 1 player, Martina Hingis, for the first time in her career 62, 62. Fed Cup Elena Dementieva is the most successful Russian Fed Cup player. As of April 29, 2007, she is 19-5 in singles and 33 in doubles. Her most prominent singles victories in Fed Cup were over Venus Williams (her first win over a top 10 player), Mary Pierce, Amelie Mauresmo, and Kim Clijsters. Trivia
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