From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elena Dementieva

Country	Russia
Residence	Moscow, Russia
Date of birth	October 15, 1981 (age 25)
Place of birth	Moscow, Russia
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	64 kg (141 lb)
Turned Pro	August 25, 1998
Plays	Right; Two-handed backhand
Career Prize Money	$7,979,594
Singles
Career record:	389-206
Career titles:	6 WTA, 3 ITF titles
Highest ranking:	No. 4 (October 25, 2004)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	4th (2002, 2005, 2007)
French Open	F (2004)
Wimbledon	QF (2006)
U.S. Open	F (2004)
Doubles
Career record:	147-82
Career titles:	6 WTA, 3 ITF titles
Highest ranking:	No. 5 (April 14, 2003)
Infobox last updated on: February 21, 2007.

Olympic medal record
Women's Tennis
Competitor for  Russia
Silver	2000 Sydney	Singles

Elena Vyacheslavovna Dementieva (pronounced: YELL-e-nuh de-MENT-ye-vuh Russian: Елена Вячеславовна Дементьева (help·info)); born October 15, 1981, Moscow), better known as Elena Dementieva, is a professional tennis player from Russia.

Contents 1 Tennis career 2 Grand Slam singles finals 2.1 Runner-ups (2) 3 Titles (15) 3.1 Singles (6 WTA, 3 ITF) 3.2 Doubles (6) 4 Runner-ups (18) 4.1 Singles (11) 4.2 Doubles (7) 5 Singles performance timeline 6 Other notable matches 7 Trivia 8 External links

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.

In 1999, Dementieva represented Russia in the Fed Cup final against the United States, scoring Russia's only point when she upset Venus Williams 1-6, 6-3, 7-6(5), recovering from a 4-1 third set defecit. 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, she 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 6-2, 6-4. 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. She 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 6-2, 6-2 in a quarterfinal in Moscow. Dementieva reached the final of that tournament, losing to Jelena Dokic.

In 2003, Dementieva played the most tournaments among top ten players (27) and won approximately U.S. $900,000 in prize money. At Amelia Island, she won her first WTA tour title, defeating Amanda Coetzer, Daniela Hantuchová, Justine Henin-Hardenne, and second ranked Davenport. Dementieva was the lowest seed (10th) to win the tournament in its 24-year history. She also won back-to-back titles in Bali and Shanghai, defeating Chanda Rubin in the final in both events. Dementieva finished 2003 in the top 10 for the first time (No. 8). In addition, she reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon doubles with her friend and compatriot Lina Krasnoroutskaya, beating the Venus and Serena Williams team along the way.

Dementieva's breakthrough year was 2004. In Miami, she defeated Venus Williams in the quarterfinals and Nadia Petrova in the semifinals. Dementieva then lost to the top seeded and two-time defending champion Serena Williams 6-1, 6-1. 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 WTA top 10 simultaneously. In May at the French Open, Dementieva reached her first Grand Slam final, defeating former top ranked Davenport in the fourth round, Mauresmo in the quarterfinals, and Paola Suarez in the semifinals, all in straight sets. Dementieva lost to compatriot 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, Dementieva reached her second Grand Slam final, defeating Amélie Mauresmo and Jennifer Capriati en route. Countrywoman Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated 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.

In 2005, Dementieva reached six semifinals, the most important being at the U.S. Open. She also reached the final in Charleston, losing to Henin Hardenne, and Philadelphia, losing to Mauresmo despite serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set. In the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, Dementieva defeated top ranked Davenport 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(6) for her second victory over a current No. 1 player. In the semifinals, she lost to Mary Pierce 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. 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 Pennetta of Italy, 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 3-2 in the final. All three points came from Dementieva, as she avenged her loss to Pierce at the U.S. Open, beat Amélie Mauresmo, and then won the deciding doubles match with partner Dinara Safina. At the WTA Tour Championships, Dementieva lost all three round robin matches against Mauresmo, Pierce, and Clijsters with the same score each time: 6-2, 6-3.

Dementieva started slowly in 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. On the run to the title, she defeated Katarina Srebotnik, Nicole Vaidisova, and Anastasia Myskina, all in three sets. She then defeated the resurgent 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, Dementieva reached the final. She defeated rising stars Sania Mirza, Ana Ivanović, and Na Li along the way. Dementieva then upset Henin Hardenne in a semifinal 2-6, 7-5, 7-5. The victory was her fourth three set match of the tournament, and fatigue contributed to her 6-1, 6-2 loss to Maria Sharapova in the final. The conditions were also windy that day, and her flat, counter-punching strokes had less margin for error than those of Sharapova.

After the Pacific Life Open, Dementieva lost in the fourth round in Miami to Tatiana Golovin. Dementieva's subsequent clay court results were largely mediocre. Dementieva lost in the Warsaw semifinals to Kim Clijsters, Berlin third round to Hingis for the first time in four matches, and the Rome quarterfinals to Dinara Safina. Dementieva then lost in the third round of the French Open to Shahar Peer 6-4, 7-5 after being up 4-1 in both sets. On grass, Dementieva reached the s'Hertogenbosch semifinals, losing to Michaella Krajicek despite holding a match point, and the Wimbledon quarterfinals. At Wimbledon, Dementieva beat Mirza, Meghann Shaughnessy, Elena Likhovtseva, and Shenay Perry before losing to fourth seeded Sharapova 6-1, 6-4. Despite the loss, Dementieva was applauded by many fans and critics for her improvement in her serve. She no longer tossed the ball so far to the side and hit the slice serve every time. Because of this, she was able to hit first serves up to 110 mph, which was generally where top players of the game were consistently hitting. However, her second serve was still vulnerable to the akward motion, as they usually were about half the speed of her first serve.

Dementieva was Russia's top player for the 2006 Fed Cup World Group I playoff against Croatia, winning both her single matches in straight sets.

In August 2006, Dementieva won the JP Morgan Chase Open in Los Angeles by defeating Jelena Janković in the final 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. 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 tournaments—Schruff in the second round, Peer in the third round, Sharapova in a semifinal (for the first time since 2003), and Janković in the final.

At the 2006 U.S. Open, Dementieva reached the quarterfinals for the fourth time, losing to Janković 6-2, 6-1. The three games she won were all breaks of serve. Dementieva did not hold serve during the entire match. 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." [1]. She lost the distinction of being the Russian player to have won the most prize money to Maria Sharapova, who won the tournament.

In the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Dementieva overcame cramps and a 6-4, 4-1 deficit to defeat Srebotnik 4-6, 7-5, 7-5. When serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set, Dementieva collapsed and needed treatment. Dementieva failed to serve out the match but broke Srebotnik again and finished the match on her second opportunity. But due to the injury sustained from her second round match, Dementieva withdrew from the tournament.

At her home tournament in Moscow, Dementieva reached her seventh semifinal of 2006, losing to Anna Chakvetadze, after defeating Peer (and saving a match point) in the second round and Patty Schnyder in the quarterfinals for the first time this year.

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 6-1, 6-4; Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-3; and Clijsters 6-4, 6-0. Her career win-loss record at this tournament fell to 3-14. She had lost her last 9 matches played there.

Dementieva started 2007 by playing an exhibition tournament in Hong Kong, the Watson Waters Challenge, where she defeated Nicole Vaidisova in the quarterfinals and lost to Sharapova in the semifinals. Her first official tournament was in Sydney, Australia, where she lost in the second round to Li Na 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 after being up 5-2 in the third set and holding five match points.

At the 2007 Australian Open, Dementieva matched her career best result at this tournament by reaching the fourth round, where she lost to Vaidisova 6-3, 6-3. It was interesting to note that to win the Australian Open, players generally had to cope with long matches because of a neutral surface and extreme heat. Generally, players who were most fit had the best success Down Under. The exception to that was Dementieva, who is considered to be the most fit player in women's tennis today. She has been referred to as "the backboard" in 3rd sets, as she seems to play like she just started a match.

Dementieva unsuccessfully attempted to defend her singles title at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, losing a semifinal match to Hingis 6-4, 6-3. Because of an injury she could not participate in the Open Gaz de France tournament in Paris. Without having fully recovered she played again at Antwerp but had to retire from her first round match against Elena Likhovtseva. She then travelled to Indian Wells to compete in the Pacific Life Open but withdrew from the tournament at short notice. According to her website [2] she will take a timeout until the end of April. As a result of this on April 2 she dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since September 2003.

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
2004	French Open	Anastasia Myskina	6-1, 6-2
2004	U.S. Open	Svetlana Kuznetsova	6-3, 7-5

Legend

Grand Slam (0)

Tour Championships (0)

Tier I Event (1)

Tier II (3)

Tier III (2)

Tier IV & V (0)

ITF Titles (3)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the Final	Score
1.	27 October 1996	Jurmula, Latvia	Hard Indoors	Vera Zhukovets	6-2 6-2
2.	17 August 1997	Istanbul, Turkey	Hard	Dessislava Topalova	7-5 6-4
3.	8 March 1998	Buchen, Germany	Carpet	Miriam Schnitzer	6-2 6-2
4.	14 April 2003	Amelia Island, USA	Clay	Lindsay Davenport	4-6 7-5 6-3
5.	8 September 2003	Bali, Indonesia	Hard	Chanda Rubin	6-2 6-1
6.	15 September 2003	Shanghai, P.R. China	Hard	Chanda Rubin	6-3 7-6
7.	27 September 2004	Hasselt, Belgium	Hard	Elena Bovina	0-6 6-0 6-4
8.	5 February 2006	Tokyo, Japan	Carpet	Martina Hingis	6-2 6-0
9.	13 August 2006	Los Angeles, USA	Hard	Jelena Janković	6-3 4-6 6-4

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partnering	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	May 12, 2002	Berlin, Germany	Clay	Janette Husarova	Daniela Hantuchova & Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario	0-6, 7-6(3), 6-2
2.	August 4, 2002	San Diego, California	Hard	Janette Husarova	Daniela Hantuchova & Ai Sugiyama	6-2, 6-4
3.	October 6, 2002	Moscow, Russia	Carpet	Janette Husarova	Jelena Dokic & Nadia Petrova	2-6, 6-3, 7-6(7)
4.	November 11, 2002	Los Angeles, USA	Carpet	Janette Husarova	Cara Black & Elena Likhovtseva	4-6, 6-4, 6-3
5.	June 21, 2003	s'Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Lina Krasnoroutskaya	Nadia Petrova & Mary Pierce	2-6, 6-3, 6-4
6.	August 14, 2005	Los Angeles, USA	Hard	Flavia Pennetta	Bethanie Mattek & Angela Haynes	6-2, 6-4

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent in the Final
1.	2000	Sydney Olympics	Venus Williams
2.	2001	Acapulco	Amanda Coetzer
3.	2001	Moscow	Jelena Dokić
4.	2002	's-Hertogenbosch	Eleni Daniilidou
5.	2004	Miami	Serena Williams
6.	2004	French Open	Anastasia Myskina
7.	2004	U.S. Open	Svetlana Kuznetsova
8.	2004	Moscow	Anastasia Myskina
9.	2005	Charleston	Justin Henin
10.	2005	Philadelphia	Amelie Mauresmo
11.	2006	Indian Wells	Maria Sharapova

• 2001
  • Moscow (w/Krasnoroutskaya) (lost to Hingis & Kournikova)
• 2002
  • Paris (lost to Tu & Dechy)
  • Indian Wells (lost to Raymond & Stubbs)
  • US Open (lost to Ruano Pascal & Suarez)
• 2005
  • Sydney (w/Sugiyama) (lost to Stewart & Stosur)
  • US Open (w/Pennetta) (lost to Raymond & Stosur)
• 2006
  • Berlin (w/Pennetta) (lost to Yan & Zheng)

To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, which ended on March 18, 2007.

Tournament	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	Career SR	Career Win-Loss2
Australian Open	A	A	2R	3R	3R	4R	1R	1R	4R	1R	4R	0 / 9	14-9
French Open	A	A	2R	2R	2R	4R	1R	F	4R	3R		0 / 8	17-8
Wimbledon	A	A	1R	1R	3R	4R	4R	1R	4R	QF		0 / 8	15-8
U.S. Open	A	A	3R	SF	4R	2R	4R	F	SF	QF		0 / 8	28-8
Grand Slam SR	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 1	0 / 33	N/A
Grand Slam Win-Loss	0-0	0-0	4-4	8-4	8-4	10-4	6-4	11-4	14-4	10-4	3-1	N/A	74-33
Tokyo	A	A	A	A	A	2R	QF	2R	QF	W	SF	1 / 6	10-5
Indian Wells	A	A	A	SF	QF	3R	4R	A	SF	F	A	0 / 6	20-6
Miami	A	A	A	4R	SF	QF	2R	F	QF	4R	A	0 / 7	20-7
Charleston	A	A	A	4R	A	2R	3R	3R	F	A		0 / 5	10-5
Berlin	A	A	A	QF	A	1R	1R	3R	A	3R		0 / 5	5-5
Rome	A	A	2R	2R	A	A	2R	2R	2R	QF		0 / 6	3-6
San Diego	A	A	A	1R	3R	3R	3R	SF	2R	QF		0 / 7	8-7
Montreal/Toronto	A	A	A	1R	3R	2R	SF	2R	A	A		0 / 5	6-5
Moscow	1R	1R	1R	QF	F	2R	SF	F	SF	SF		0 / 10	17-10
Zurich	A	A	1R	2R	1R	2R	2R	SF	QF	2R		0 / 8	5-8
WTA Tour Championships	A	A	A	SF	1R	1R	RR	RR	RR	RR		0 / 7	3-14
Finals reached	0	0	0	1	2	1	3	5	2	3	0	N/A	17
Tournaments Won	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	2	0	N/A	6
Overall Win-Loss1	14-4	27-11	41-21	40-22	35-22	37-27	49-25	39-23	45-22	47-21	6-4	N/A	389-206
Year End Ranking	355	182	62	11	15	19	8	6	8	8		N/A	N/A

A = did not participate in the tournament.

SR = the ratio of the number of singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.

¹The "Overall Win-Loss" row includes Fed Cup matches, results from qualifying tournaments or matches, and Dementieva's record for the following years: 1-1 in 1995 and 8-3 in 1996.

²The "Career Win-Loss" column does not include qualifying tournaments or matches, except for the "Overall Win-Loss" row.

• 2001 Moscow quarterfinal: defeated a World No. 1 player, Martina Hingis, for the first time in her career 6-2, 6-2.
• 2003 Paris semifinal: lost to Amelie Mauresmo 6-0, 6-0 for the only double bagel defeat of her career.
• 2004 French Open final: lost to Anastasia Myskina 6-1, 6-2 in her first Grand Slam final. Dementieva cried out, "I hate my serve!" to her mother during the match.
• 2005 Wimbledon fourth round: lost to Myskina for the fourth consecutive time 1-6, 7-6(9), 7-5 after being up 6-1, 3-0, serving for the match at 6-5 in the second set, and with a match point in the second set tiebreak.
• 2005 U.S. Open quarterfinal: defeated World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5). It was the fourth time since the 2004 U.S. Open that she had won a match 7-6 in the third set and fifth time since the 2000 U.S. Open.
• 2005 Filderstadt quarterfinal: defeated Kim Clijsters 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 for the second time in nine meetings, halting her 21-match winning streak. Dementieva declared in the on-court interview following the match that it was the best match she had ever played.
• 2006 Tokyo final: defeated Hingis 6-2, 6-0 in 59 minutes to claim her first title since Hasselt in October 2004 and first Tier I title. Dementieva said after the match that she played well only one day a week. Otherwise, she would already be the top ranked player.
• 2006 Indian Wells semifinal: defeated Justine Henin for the second time in nine meetings, 2-6, 7-5, 7-5. Dementieva recovered from a 2-6, 2-5 defecit and Henin's twice serving for the match. This was Dementieva's first top 10 win of the year.
• 2006 Los Angeles final: defeated Jelena Janković 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. After being up 5-0 against a visibly fatigued opponent in the third set, Dementieva failed to close out the match on serve twice, breaking for the victory after Janković won four straight games.

• Is dating Buffalo Sabres winger and fellow Russian Olympian Maxim Afinogenov, as confirmed on Dementieva's official website [3].
• Enjoys skiing and chess.
• Once had a large cactus collection.
• Was voted the most stylish player on tour at the 2006 Zurich Open in an online poll. [4]

• WTA Tour profile for Elena Dementieva
• Official website
• ElenaD.Ru
• Elena Dementieva Fanclub
• Dementieva.tk
• Elena Dementieva at the Internet Movie Database