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From Russia with love

It’s no secret that Elena Dementieva’s mission is to win a Grand Slam.

BY DEREK SNIDER

If you’re looking for just one game-changing event that upped the ante in women’s tennis and launched it on to the ultra-competitive court that it is today, consider Anna Kournikova’s venomous taunt to Martina Hingis at the 1994 Junior U.S. Open: “You may be number one, but I’m more marketable than you.”

A now infamous part of the tennis circuit’s feuding lore, Kournikova’s diss, hurled after Hingis twice trounced her 6-0, started the women’s game down a dangerous path. These days, that path’s been well paved by a new breed of Hollywood celebs who are rich and famous for being, well, rich and famous. But back in ‘94, Kournikova was the world’s most popular and most recognizable tennis player, even though she didn’t have a single women’s Singles tennis title to her name. Put that down to good looks and, just maybe, a career peak that coincided with the beginning of the age of online celebrity voyeurism.

Rich, famous and titleless in the Singles arena, Kournikova can at least be credited with starting a tennis revolution, one that saw an army of 6-foot blondes with runway looks and devastating forehands emerge from Moscow and the surrounding Russian tundra like a horde of orcs from The Lord of the Rings. Swarming across the pro tennis circuit, this new generation of players is different. They have chops on the court. Skills, not marketing, make them stars.

Elena Dementieva is currently playing against that generation. Four months younger than Kournikova (she turns 26 this October), the Moscovite who was, as of late August, ranked 15th in the WTA grew up watching Stefi Graf on TV, won her first international tournament, Les Petit As, in France at the age of 13 and is, to this day, a self-professed fan of Martina Hingis. She’s twice defeated her tennis idol (Kournikova’s former Doubles partner), once in 2002 and again in 2006, prompting the legend to declare “If she played like that all the time, she’d win Grand Slams.”

But so far a Grand Slam has eluded her. Since turning pro in 1998 and first entering the Top 100 in 1999, she’s been in the big game twice and has conceded the win twice. Needless to say, with a record of 7 Singles and 6 Doubles titles on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour as well as 3 Singles and 3 Doubles titles from the ITFWomen’s Circuit (not to mention a slew of solid victories at the various Opens and Wimbledon, two Fed Cup championships for Russia and a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics), she’s itching for that third-time’s-the-charm opportunity.

Known for focusing on her game and not on the media, Elena took time out from her busy Sony Ericsson WTA Tour schedule during the Roger’s Cup in Toronto to talk about tennis, family, fun and why she’s hooked on Niagara Falls.

How special was your win in May at the Istanbul Cup?

That was actually special, even though it was a small event. I was really happy because it took a couple of tournaments to get to this one, to get my confidence back and playing well. So I think this made it very special.

You had a set-back this year. Can you tell us about the injury?

Well, I had a very weird injury ‘cause I started to work with a new hysician. After three weeks I realized that I had three broken ribs and I was off for, like, seven weeks. That was really depressing, probably because there is not much you can do with broken ribs. You just have to wait, just take some time to recover. So I missed popular tournaments, big tournaments. It was tough to come back, to get your confidence back and play well again.

To not notice that you had three broken ribs? You continued to train. How did you not know?

Well, ‘cause they were saying different things, saying that I had something different. When you are doing just an x-ray you couldn’t see. You really need to go for MRI or something else. I was practicing through pain, because I really wanted to get ready for intervals. I wish I knew earlier so I could stop earlier.

As a result you parted ways with your coach at the time and now you're coached by your mom. Isn’t that difficult, being around your mom all the time?

It is good for me. It works for me. For sure, sometimes it’s tough. You have such a close relationship, because we are 24/7 together. But she is the biggest supporter in my life. She was with me from the beginning of my career, so she knows me better than anyone else. That really helps me, because it’s great to have someone from your family traveling with you and supporting you. I mean, this is very important.

Do you hold any resentment towards your trainer for continuing to push you forward while you were injured?

I think that he was just not a very professional guy. I didn’t know what he was doing. I was just according to my special needs. I was doing that because he’s very famous in Moscow. Lots of different good athletes are working with him. Even with my experience, it didn’t stop them from working with him. I think it’s not a good statistic when you are going to help one person and injure another one. So it doesn’t work this way. It just happened to me. Just a bad experience in my mind. That’s it.

Is it true that you considered retirement at the time?

Well, no. I was really depressed at the time because I didn’t know what to do. It completely changed the rhythm of my life. From being so active, during the day I was spending most of the time in my bed watching TV. It really felt different. So I wasn’t sure how much time it [would] take to come back and if I would be able to come back. Maybe that’s why I started to seem a bit negative.

Did you start thinking about life after tennis?

No. I really wanted to come back. Those injuries gave me some time to think about what I am doing on the court. I was watching lots of matches, and I really felt that I was missing this.I know it’s a short period of time, but I wanna play as long as I can because I feel there is a lot of things I didn’t achieve yet. But I can do it.

Did the injury and the break from tennis give you a different perspective on playing tournaments?

Oh yeah. The only good thing about coming back from a break or injury is that you take every single tournament special. You’re really so focused on playing your every single match because you missed a lot. That’s what happened with me after the break.

Women’s tennis seems to be going through a change. The old guard is still there, but there are a lot of younger players that are coming through that are really good. Who should we keep our eye on?

There are a lot of young players like Ana Ivanovic. She’s in #4 position. I think she can be #1 because she has the power, she knows she has the game, she has a huge serve. That’s what you need to know to play well in today’s tennis. So she looks to me as a favourite to become #1.

A lot of people are pointing towards Serbian tennis as being very good right now. What about Russian tennis? In the last 5 or 6 years we’ve seen a whole crop of other, very tall, very powerful women come through. How good is Russian tennis?

Well, you know, most of the people thinking that way are still down there, but I don’t think so. It’s hard to defend your title when you are a Grand Slam Champion because we won three Grand Slam. Then afterwards some of us were in the semi finals again. It’s difficult to defend a Grand Slam title. I don’t think we slowed down. In life it always goes ups and downs, but we still play in the top 12, most of the Russian girls, and we’re still very strong and powerful for the moment. As you can see by the list, #1 is Russian and #2 is Russian. That means tennis is very popular in Russia. We are gonna see some more good players soon.

Do you find that all the Russian tennis players get grouped in together, like everybody’s the same?

I don’t think so. I think we are all different. We have a different personality. We have a different game. Most of us are trying to play aggressive game with back-hand attack. We never give up, we fight for every single point. That’s what you can say about all the Russian players. But we are all different.

Anna Kournikova playing in the Legends match was front-page news, even though she hadn’t played in a really long time. Does that surprise you?

Actually not, because when she was playing she was very popular, one of the most popular players on the tour. I’m sure she still has lots of fans, especially on the men’s side. So people probably wanted to see her.

But she’s not popular in the way you want to be popular. Is it fair to say that you’ve sort of distanced yourself from the way that Anna marketed herself?

I think that I have different goals. From the beginning I always wanted to become number one, just to be good at tennis. That was the goal for me, my motivation. I think she had a different one.

In 2003 you played more matches than any other Top 20 seed. When do you find time to relax?

I think the best way to relax for me is just to spend some quiet time with my family and friends because I miss them. By traveling all the time, I miss my hometown, Russia. So it's nice not to go anywhere. With my off time season I just don’t want to take a plane, because I have to do it once or twice a week. That’s really stressful to do this the whole year.

When you are traveling do you have a favourite city where you actually get to experience the art, food or shopping and not just the tennis?

For shopping, the best place would be New York, in Manhattan. There are a lot of nice places, like Melbourne, and Sweden, because I like nature and there are lots of things to see.

I’ve read that one of your most memorable experiences was seeing the wildlife in Australia.

Oh yeah, yeah! That was a great experience. You can touch all the animals. Visually, you really have to go to the zoo to see all of that. When you come to Australia it’s just all around you. You just have to open your eyes because it’s so many beautiful things like trees, flowers, animals, birds and it’s just so close to you. This is amazing.

And Toronto?

It’s not my first time in Toronto. I like this city. I spend some time in Buffalo, so I always come to Toronto and to visit Niagara Falls as well. So I think it’s a nice place.

Buffalo has a bit of a bad reputation as not being the nicest place in the world.

Well, for me, the city is not about the buildings. I like it because I like to watch ice hockey, I like to support Buffalo Sabres team and I like Niagara Falls. I’m really, really close to it. I think it’s nice.

When you are in Niagara Falls do you do all the touristy things?

Yes, we do everything. Not even once, because I like it so much. I like to take a boat and get close to the Falls. It’s a little bit scary, but it’s an amazing thing to stand up close and take all these beautiful pictures.

So you’ve been on the Maid of the Mist?

Oh yeah, just actually two days ago, that was my last time. It was heavily raining. We were completely wet afterwards. I was afraid to get sick, but we did it.

The reason you spend a lot of time in Buffalo is because of your relationship with Maxim Afinogenov from the Sabres. Do you find that you get more questions about your personal life than you do about your tennis because of your relationship?

Well, I never talk about my private life. So people know about it, they never ask me any questions. Yeah, just keep it private.

When Venus Williams was at Wimbledon the very first question that was asked of her by journalists wasn’t about tennis or her desire to continue to play, it was about who was following her around and who was in her entourage. Is that the downside?

I think it’s normal that people want to get closer to you. They wanna know more about you, about your private life. They just want to know more. I think it’s up to the person, if they wanna share their private life, who they are seeing, who their friends are or not. All people are different.

Are the men asked about their personal life as much as the women?

Men are more open than women. And they like to talk about their lives, private lives, about their girlfriends. I think they have no problems protecting their private lives. Here in Canada it’s hard because all the questions before my matches were about Buffalo Sabres, ice hockey, Maxim. I was like, Yeah I know ice hockey is a very popular sport here in Canada but I am here for the tennis tournament. People just kept asking me all these questions.

You recently had an interesting experience with a Japanese journalist. Did you have any idea that they were afraid of you?

I had actually no idea, ‘cause they are always so friendly, they always come to me, talk to me. So, I was surprised to hear this.

Maybe it was just the way that it was written, but it sounded like they were portraying you as a blonde Godzilla.

Oh yeah, I said maybe because I am too tall for them.

Was he making a reference to your power on the court?

Well, I think that’s what he meant.

You contributed to a couple of books released at Wimbledon, Love Life and Love Food. What were your contributions?

I think it was a good idea to share some tips with your fans. We travel a lot and we spend most of the time in the hotel and planes. To give some advice on what’s the best way to travel, to stay in the hotel, what we like to cook, what we like to eat was just something to share with our fans.

Do you really have time to cook when you are on the road?

Well, not on the road, but when I’m home I like to cook. To go everyday to the restaurant for the breakfast, lunch and dinner...you really want to spend some time at home and cooking.

What’s your specialty in the kitchen?

I can cook everything. I’m a meat lover. So I like to cook Filet Mignon or something with meat.

Did you get any advice from any of the other stars in the book that you can apply to your own life?

There are a lot of good things that other players are sharing with you. Some of the players like to travel with their pillows and I like to do it myself. Some of the players like to eat meat before they go to play and that’s what I like do. There’s lots of things we pretty much do the same.

What’s the hardest thing about what you do?

To travel all the time. To be away from your family, that’s the most difficult. But that’s just part of the job that I have to do.

Is that something you think most fans don’t really understand?

Yeah, I think most of the people don’t understand how hard it is to travel week by week, with the time difference, with all this pressure during the tournament. Sometimes you have to wait for your match more than 5 or 6 hours before you get to the court, and then it’s just hard to understand why you lost because maybe you fall asleep during this time. So there are some things about tennis it is hard to understand when you are not a professional athlete. People just look at you as a tennis girl, that you have to produce your best every time you step on the court. It’s really hard to do with our busy schedule.

With such a busy schedule do you have time for hobbies?

Tennis is kind of my hobbies. I like to watch ice hockey. I like to do some other sports in the winter like ski and snowboarding.

Would you ever stop playing certain tournaments to have more time for yourself?

No. I really enjoy what I am doing. I’m sure I am going to have time for everything in my life afterwards.

You spend so much time with the other players. Do you have a lot of friends on tour?

That’s true, we spend so much time together, but I wouldn’t call them close friends. Because it’s difficult, you have to face each other on the court and fight against each other. But I have a very good relationship with most of the girls. We spend some time together. We practice together on the court.

If you weren’t a tennis player, what do you think you would do?

I don’t know. It’s hard to say because my grandmother is a doctor and my uncle is a doctor. They always wanted me to go the medicine university to be a doctor. So maybe I would be one.

If you did, what specialty would have interested you?

I would be a kid’s doctor ‘cause I like to work with kids. I think it’s a good one.

Any kids in the future?

I hope so.

That was sort of awkward. What’s the most awkward question you get asked? Is it about your serve?

People actually think I hate answering it, but it’s okay with me. I know it’s not perfect and I know most of the people don’t understand how come it’s still not perfect for so many years. I’m also surprised. But it’s a small process. Every time they ask me, I just say that it’s getting better. And it is getting better. It just takes some time.

Are you a fashionista?

I’m not too crazy about it. I think a person has to be more beautiful inside than outside, I think it’s more important. But, yeah, as a girl I like to go shopping. I like to dress well, but I don’t go too crazy about it.

So a photo shoot is fun?

It’s fun. I think it’s, you know, it’s something different. It takes you away from the tennis matches, the stress on the court.

Even though it’s on the same day as a match?

As soon as it’s my doubles match it’s okay. I wouldn’t do it on my singles day ‘cause you have to be focused before the match. But it feels good.

http://www.peacemagazine.com/

Open Gaz de France

Dementieva beats Kuznetsova to win Dubai title

By Barry Wood

DUBAI (Reuters) - Elena Dementieva defeated second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 4-6 6-3 6-2 in an all-Russian final at the Dubai Championship on Saturday to win her ninth career title.

It was the eighth seed's first trophy since she won in Moscow in October while Kuznetsova suffered her second defeat in the final here, having also lost to Justine Henin in 2004.

"I feel so happy," Dementieva told reporters. "This was my first time at this event and it is such a big win.

"I think it was a great match and I played probably my best match for a long time."

Both players struggled to gain an advantage in a closely-contested opening set of long baseline rallies that produced seven breaks of serve.

Kuznetsova went 2-0 ahead but lost the next three games before winning the following three to lead 5-3.

Dementieva, striking her forehand to good effect, broke as Kuznetsova served for the set, only to drop her own serve for the fourth time in the next game.

The second set was also close with Kuznetsova attempting to come to the net more while Dementieva's pace forced a number of errors from her opponent.

Kuznetsova had the opportunity to build on her advantage when she held a break point to lead 2-0 but hit a return long and Dementieva punished her by breaking twice to go 4-1 up.

BACKHAND ERROR

Although Kuznetsova recovered one break in the sixth game, Dementieva broke again for the set when her rival made a backhand error.

Dementieva maintained her momentum in the decider, striking a fine winner at the net to break for 2-0 before going on to claim the winner's check of $250,000.

"I think in the first set I was playing wrong tactically," she said. "I didn't move Svetlana at all.

"Then I realized I had to play the whole court, I have to move her, I have to be aggressive and go more for the forehand winners."

Kuznetsova was unhappy with her performance.

"I am very disappointed because I think I got all the chances and all the possibilities today but I just didn't take them," she said. "I was playing within myself and my level was going lower and lower.

"I don't know, with playing at night, if it was my vision or something but my level got lower and she just played consistent."

http://www.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/...lBrandChannel=0

She is one of the hottest player in the world of tennis .

Baltimore Ravens running back Willis McGahee, right, shakes hands with tennis player Elena Dementieva of Russia, left, after hitting on a practice court at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Fla. Wednesday, March 26, 2008.