Player of the week: Elena Dementieva

Russian player Elena Dementieva has been a very solid Top 20 since year 2000, finishing in the Top 10 for 4 consecutive seasons, from 2003 to 2006. But she lacked a big title to get into women's tennis history. This will change after Beijing Olympics, where she has conquered the Gold Medal.


Elena had an easy way until the quarter-finals, where she had to face one of the top favourites, WTA #4 Serena Williams. Despite losing the first set, Elena come back to win the match. This boosted her confidence and she defeated fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals in straight sets. But in the final everything seemed to be against her. She had lost the most important finals she had played (Sydney Olympics 2000, Roland Garros 2004 and US Open 2004) and she was facing Dinara Safina who was in an impressive form, with 3 titles and 15 consecutive victories in the last month, and who had defeated Elena three times in the last 3 months (one of them in Roland Garros semifinals, coming from a set down and saving match points). Furthermore Safina took the first set, but Dementieva didn't surrender and won the match in three sets, taking revenge from Safina and showing that she's able to fight for the big titles.


Nobody trusted Dementieva when she said that her goal was becoming WTA #1, but now she's just 418 points away. She could reach #1 in the US Open, but for that she should demonstrate that she is able to win a Grand Slam.