Biography Elena Dementieva was born on October 15, 1981 in Moscow. Her father is Viatcheslav, an electrical engineer by profession and mother Vera, a teacher. Both of them have played recreational tennis, and their love towards the game urged them to guide their children in playing tennis and tried to enroll them in Moscow's most eminent sports clubs. Subsequently their effort was well paid when daughter Elena Dementieva turns to professional tennis and become a top seed tennis player from Russia.
Elena is a younger sibling of her parents and has an elder brother Vsevolod who is a university student. Initially she was taken to Dynamo and the Central Red Army Club but both club refused to take her considering her minor imperfections, but later she got enrolled in the illustrious Spartak Club, where she was coached by Rauza Islanova, mother and trainer of Russian men's tennis star Marat Safin.
Islanova coached her for three years and those were the tough days for her. Islanova was really a strict coach with sport-like discipline, under her guidance and prodding, Elena developed that fighting spirit till the end which made her tougher and brought positive improvement in her game.
Besides tennis, she enjoys playing chess and skiing, she is fond of animals and animals and has a Yorkshire terrier named Patrick. She admires Martina Hingis as she plays smart, like playing chess on court and aims to become a #1 tennis player in the world.
Career in Tennis
She started her career with domestic tournaments and always reached the level where she was either a winner or runner-up. Back home in Russia she has a tough competition with other stars namely Anna Kournikova, Ekaterina Sysoeva, and Anastasia Myskina and she always maintained her position among the top four women in her country.
After her term got over with Islanova, she was happily accepted in the Central Red Army Club and was coached by Sergei Pashkov. Here she learnt professional tennis and techniques to rule the court developing her crushing two-handed backhand. She played and won international tournament in Les Petit As, in France at the age of 13 and she was listed among the top 500 WTA ranking, on August 25, 1998, she turned to a professional player and by the end of 1999, she entered top 100 ranking.
In 1999, she represented Russia in Fed Cup and played against Venus Williams of the U.S in final and upset her by 1–6, 6–3, 7–6(5). She played her first Grand Slam main draw and qualified for Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon and got direct entry to U.S. Open. She could not be a final winner but made her way up to second round at the Australian Open and French Open, reached the third round in the U.S. Open and expelled in the first round at Wimbledon.
Year 2000 saw more success as she won around 40 singles and entered top 20 in WTA ranking and earned more than U.S. $600,000. She then reached to semi final of U.S Open and created history by becoming the first Russian woman to reach semifinal of U.S Open, there she was led down by Lindsay Davenport. Again she represented Russia in Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, she reached final defeating Jelena Dokic 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 however she lost the final against Venus Williams and went home with Silver Medal. That year she was recognized as WTA tours most improved player.
In 2001, she became the top ranked Russian player, the title previously held by Anna Kournikova since December 1997. In 2002, she along with her partner Janette Husarova of Slovakia reached the final of the U.S. Open and won WTA Tour Championship. In singles, she defeated Martina Hingis 6–2, 6–2, a top ranked player in quarterfinal to reach the final but she lost to Jelena Dokic.
Year 2003 proved to be very lucky for her as she won her first WTA tour title at Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida defeating top ranked players like WTA Tour title, defeating Amanda Coetzer, World No. 9 Daniela Hantuchova, World No. 4 Justine Henin, and World No. 5 Lindsay Davenport. Dementieva. She won tow more finals at Bali and Shanghai defeating Chanda Rubin, and reached semifinals of the Wimbledon doubles with compatriot Lina Krasnoroutskaya beating the Venus and Serena Williams. She reached her to 38 for the first time in her career and by the end of the year she bagged US$869,740 in prize money.
2004 remained a challenging year for Elena, in the beginning of the year she defeated Venus Williams in the quarterfinal and Nadia Petrova in the semifinals but unfortunately defeated by top seeded and two-time defending champion Serena Williams 6–1, 6–1. In May the same year, she reached her first Grand Slam final at the French Open defeating Paola Suarez in the semifinals all in straight sets but lost to fellow citizen Myskina. Later that year, she reached to her second Grand Slam final, defeating Mauresmo and Jennifer Capriati but compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova became the Grand Slam winner. But success of that season clicked when she won final in Hasselt.
Elena played many tournaments in 2005, and she helped Russia became Fed Cup champions beating France 3–2 in the final and also won doubles match at the U.S. Open taming up with Dinara Safina.
Her remarkable win in the year 2006 was at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo where she won her first Tier I event. Later she again won a tournament in Los Angeles by defeating Jelena Jankovic in the final 6–3, 4–6, 6–4. At the U.S. Open, Dementieva cleared her way up to quarterfinal but lost the game to Jankovic 6–2, 6–1. Dementieva qualified for the WTA Tour Championship nad became the most active player to do so qualifying for event straight for 7 years.
In 2007, Dementieva won two titles and reached three semifinals with five quarterfinal but the bigger success of her career came in an event in Moscow where she defeated Serena Williams in the final 5–7, 6–1, 6–1
