Tennis history is filed with players who had immense talent, but somehow never seemed to fully utilize their talent, no player has been plagued by this problem more than Elena Dementieva. Whenever the odds, fait and skill have aligned for the benefit of Elena Dementieva, she has repeatedly shown the tennis world just how well she can sabotage herself. As if to say: “Ha! I can lose no matter how talented I am!”
This method of throwing sand into the eyes of the tennis Gods has resulted in no Grand Slam glory (after two finals), which has transpired to her never being the WTA No.1 ranked player (although Dinara Safina and Jelena Jankovic have shown that you can achieve that feat without hoisting that trophy). For years it was believed that Dementieva’s Achilles’ heel was her dubious serve, however, after the 2009 Wimbledon Women’s Singles Semifinal we can conclude this is no longer the real problem.
As soon as Serena Williams and Dementieva had booked the places in the Wimbledon semifinals, it clearly going to be a good match –most of their encounters had been good enough to warrant such an assumption- with Serena Williams poised to take the match. So you can imagine the shock that the bookies, Serena and the entire centre court got when Dementieva came out firing like there was no tomorrow. Dementieva’s serve was on point, her ground strokes crisp and hard, her movement agile and looked like a player who believed she could win it- while Serena looked like a player who was clearly out of her depth. The deciding moment came at 4-5 in the decider with Serena serving to stay in the match. Dementieva had a match point that would have sent her into the final. Serena served a good second serve and charged into the net, in that split second the fearless Dementieva vanished and was replaced by good ‘ol choker Demetieva who decided to play a safe crosscourt passing short that Serena easily volleyed for a winner- wiping out Dementieva’s match point as well as her only chance to go to the final. After that point Serena went on to win the decider 8-6 leaving Dementieva and a lot of other people wondering how it all went wrong.
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The Answer- Dementieva Sabotaged herself yet again, just as she had in 2004 in both the French Open and the US Open finals. It seems as if she is adamant to be the Best Player to have never won a grand slam. After playing good tennis for two weeks at the’04 French Open, even tossing in a bagel in the semis, her game fell apart and she only managed to win three games against Anastasia Myskina in the final. The US open the path was wide open; Justine Henin, both Williams sisters and Lindsay Davenport were disposed of – add to that the great tennis Dementieva had played to oust Amelie Mauresmo and Jennifer Capriati. Yet again Dementieva came up short in the final, managing to win eight games.
It seems that when it comes to the big moments, Dementieva rather settles for the runner up position then to actually step up to the plate and win. It pains me that Dementieva sabotages herself like this, I would have liked for her to at least win one grand slam in her career. If Safina wins a grand slam then Dementeiva will be the only one from the prominent blonde Russian tennis players to have not won a grand slam- maybe she and Anna Kournikova should start a book club. The 2009 US open was the perfect grand slam was her best shot; seeds were tumbling all around and her draw was wide open. Now with the return of Henin and a fit Maria Sharapova in 2010, one can’t help but feel that Dementieva’s chances are dwindling very fast. Until Dementieva is ready to let herself win on the big occasions, she will have to share the Best Player to Have Never Won a Slam title with Jankovic and Safina. You know what they say; two is company, but three is a party.
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