Elena Dementieva: The Next Super Star of World Tennis

There are some players in every sport who can not win as many major titles as others do, but still remain among the great players. In tennis, I think, Elena Dementieva has that fervor to become a great player, even though she has not won any grand slam titles so far in her illustrious career. Yes, it is disappointing for a player not to have won a grand slam tournament even after playing 10 years of professional tennis and at 26, she must have that feeling of not winning any grand slam tournament so far in her career. However, what is important, to me, is that she has already set herself as one of the toughest competitors of today’s tennis, be it singles or doubles. In fact, she was in the forefront of the rise of Russian tennis last decade playing a great role to set up Russian dominance on the major tennis tournaments.

Image Credit: Elena Dementieva

The Russian star has nine WTA tour singles titles and six WTA tour doubles titles to her credit until today. Her win-loss record in singles is 458-230, while in doubles, it is 150 – 84. So far, Elena Dementieva earned $9,837,500 of prize money. The right handed player also represented Russia in Fed Cup and two Olympics Games until today.

Childhood, Family and Education
Elena Dementieva was born to father Viatcheslav and mother Vera on October 15, 1981 in Moscow, Russia. Today’s tennis star started playing tennis at an early age of 7 with the inspiration from her parents, who were ardent fan of tennis and played the game themselves for recreation. Father Viatcheslav is an electrical engineer and mother Vera is a teacher by profession. Her elder brother, Vsevolod, is a university student. She attended Special Language School (French) and graduated from there in 1998 and later learned English in 2000. Dementieva speaks Russian and French fluently.

Profile and Facts about Elena Dementieva
Name	Elena Dementieva
Birth Date	October 15, 1981
Birth Place	Moscow, then Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Country	Russia
Residence	Moscow, Russia
Height	5' 11'' (1.80 m)
Weight	141 lbs. (64 kg)
Turned professional	August 25, 1998
Plays	Right; Two-handed backhand
Career Prize Money (as of Wimbledon 2008)	$9,837,500
WTA Tour singles titles (as of Wimbledon 2008)	9 WTA Tour Singles Titles
WTA Tour doubles titles (as of Wimbledon 2008)	6 WTA Tour Doubles Titles
Win-Loss Record in Singles (as of Wimbledon 2008)	458-230
Win-Loss Record in Doubles (as of Wimbledon 2008)	150 - 84
Highest Ranking (Singles)	No. 4 (October 25, 2004)
Highest Ranking (Doubles)	No. 5 (April 14, 2003)
ITF Women's Circuit singles titles	3
ITF Women's Circuit doubles titles	3

Elena Dementieva’s Start in Tennis
Parents Viatcheslav and Vera attempted to take admission for 7-year-old Elena and her brother from various renowned sports clubs in Moscow. However, Dynamo and the Central Red Army Club, two well-known sports club in Moscow, did not allow her to be enrolled by pointing out some minor problems in her movement. However, that did not stop her parents dreaming to make their daughter a tennis star. At last, Dementieva enrolled in well-known Spartak Club, where she was trained for three years under Rauza Islanova, mother and trainer of former world no. 1 of Men’s singles Marat Safin.

Elena Dementieva’s three years of training under Rauza Islanova was the base of her career as she learnt to work hard and had to maintain discipline during this time. Later, Elena Dementieva admitted that she had gone through strict discipline under Rauza Islanova.

Before Turned Professional
After finishing three years of training under Rauza Islanova at Spartak Club, Elena Dementieva was trained under Sergei Pashkov in the Central Red Army Club which earlier disallowed her citing physical problem, but this time the club gladly accepted her observing her talent and potential as a tennis player. While training under Sergei Pashkov, she improved her skill a lot and became more technically right player as well as leaned many things that would only help her to dominate the court later in her career. In fact, Dementieva developed her two handed backhand, which is one of the strong sides in her playing style, during this time under the guidance of Sergei Pashkov.

As soon as she improved her game, Dementieva started winning domestic tournaments and usually became one of the top four women’s tennis players in Russia along with Anna Kournikova, Ekaterina Sysoeva, and Anastasia Myskina. At the age of 13, she took part in her first international tournament, Les Petit As, in France and won the tournament. She debuted at IFT (International Tennis Federation) circuit event in Moscow in 1995. The following year, she took part in four tournaments on ITF circuit in which she won one singles title in Jurmala, Latvia and this is her first singles title on IFT Circuit. In 1997, Elena Dementieva debuted in WTA tour with a Tire I tournament at Moscow where she participated as a qualifier, but failed to go beyond the first round being defeated to Patty Schnyder. However, she entered the WTA top 500 in the same year, winning one singles title in Istanbul, Turkey and three doubles titles on IFT circuit.

Becoming Professional Tennis Player
Elena Dementieva turned professional on August 25, 1998 following her success on WTA tour and IFT Circuit. The same year, she gave her first shot at a grand slam tournament at U.S. Open 1998, but failed to qualify for the final tournament being defeated to Alice Canepa in the first round. In the same year, she also participated in two WTA tour events as qualifier, one at Prague losing to Amelie Mauresmo in the first round, and another one at Moscow losing to Sabine Appelmans in the first round. Despite these unsuccessful attempts in grand slam and WTA tour, Dementieva could manage to clinch her third IFT singles titles at Buchen, Germany. She finished the year 182 in WTA ranking. However, becoming professional tennis player is the most highlighted event of the year.

First Grand Slam Appearance and Entrance into Top WTA 100 for the First Time
Having seen a giant leap in WTA ranking in the previous year, Elena Dementieva continued her rise in WTA ranking in 1999 and for the first time finished the year in the top WTA 100. She started the year with her first grand slam appearance in Australian Open 1999 as a qualifier, but could reach the second round thanks to the first round victory over Gloria Pizzichini before falling to second seed Martina Hingis in the second round. She went on to participate in French Open and Wimbledon as a qualifier, but in U.S. Open 1999, Dementieva, for the first time, ensured a direct entry to a grand slam tournament and reached the third round of U.S. Open before losing to world no. 16 Conchita Martinez. Earlier, she reached the second round of French Open where she lost to Nathalie Dechy, but in Wimbledon, she was eliminated from the first round after a defeat to Dominique van Roost. She was impressive in a WTA tour event at Palermo where she reached the semi final before losing to fellow Russian Anastasia Myskina and she entered into the top 100 consequently after the tournament.

Elena Dementieva represented Russia in the Fed Cup in the same year and led Russia to reach the final where she scored the only point in their 4-1 defeat to United States. The point she secured for Russia came thanks to an excellent victory over Venus Williams (1-6, 6-3, 7-6(5), coming back from 4-1 down in the third set. She finished the year 62 in WTA ranking, setting her first top 100 finish in her career. The year 1999 was her first full season as a professional tennis player.

Coming into Limelight Becoming First Russian Woman to Reach U.S. Open Semi Final
The year 2000 is one of the most successful years in Dementieva’s career. She achieved a number of on-court success this year showing some surprise performances. Consequently, she rose to the top 20 of WTA ranking and finished the year at 12 in the ranking. Since then she has not finished any season out of top 20 thanks to her consistent performance on the court. This year, the Russian star showed more maturity as a player by reaching four semi finals including one in U.S. Open 2000, becoming the first Russian to reach the semi final of U.S. Open. She reached the third round of Australian Open, but eliminated after losing to Julie Halard-Decugi. Then in the French Open, she lost to wild card entry Virginie Razzano in the second round and a first round defeat to Nadia Petrova in Wimbledon left U.S. Open as the last chance for Dementieva to achieve something special in grand slam arena. She successfully reached the last four of U.S. Open before losing to second seed Lindsay Davenport. Following her success at U.S. Open, she entered in the top 20 for the first time in her career. Dementieva took two months to take a revenge of her U.S. Open defeat to Davenport by clinching a three-set first round victory over the then world no. 2 Davenport at Tour Championship where she reached the semi final.

Elena Dementieva represented Russia at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia and ended up winning the silver medal after losing to Venus Williams in the final. On her way to the final of Sydney Olympics Dementieva defeated Jelena Dokic 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a thrilling semi final match. Overall, the year 2000 was a very successful year for the then 19-year old emerging star. She earned more than U.S. $600,000 and was named the WTA tour's Most Improved Player in 2000.

Becoming Top Ranked Russian Player in 2001 Despite Facing Injury Problem
To many, the year 2001 was not a successful year for Elena Dementieva, but I do not think so. Yes, it is true that she started falling in her ranking after reaching no. 8 of WTA ranking due to injury problems. However, there are some achievements that you can not ignore while deciding over her success throughout the year. Despite facing injury problems, she managed to enter into the top ten for the first time and at one point became the top ranked Russian player. Dementiev reached the final of two WTA tour events this year, one at Acapulco losing to top seed Amanda Coetzer in the final and another final at Moscow losing to fifth seed Jelena Dokic. On her way to reach the semi final Elena Dementieva defeated the then world no. 1 Martina Hingis in the quarter final, which is her first victory over a reigning world no. 1.

In the first grand slam of the year at Australian Open, she could reach the third round where she lost to Daja Bedanova. On February 26, she entered rose to no. 10 in WTA ranking, reaching top 10 for the first time. About a month later, on April 2, Dementiev became the top ranked Russian player moving from no. 11 to no. 9 in the ranking, a distinction held by Anna Kournikova since December 1997, after Lindsay Davenport had withdrawn herself from the semi final due to ankle injury at Miami. However, Dementiev could not hold on that position too long due to left foot injury during a clay court tournament at Amelia Island and withdrew from the quarter final of the tournament. She kept herself out of court until the French Open 2001 where she lost to Henrieta Nagyova in the second round. Due to injury, she had to change her service motion in order to keep playing in several tournaments, but that did lessen the power of her serve and lost much of her aggressiveness. That change in serve remained same even after she recovered from the injury. She lost to Anke Huber in the third round of Wimbledon and to Kim Clijsters in the fourth round of U.S. Open. In fact, she lost a number of times to Clijsters that year, the last one being at the Fed Cup final. The Russian starlet could finish the year at 15^th in the ranking, despite the injury problems.

Proving her Mettle in Doubles
The following year, Elena Dementieva reached the fourth round at three of the four grand slam tournaments, making 2002 a successful year in terms of grand slam success. However, her success in doubles outnumbered the success in singles this year. Partnering with Janette Husarova of Slovakia, Dementieva reached the final of U.S. Open 2002 and won four WTA tour titles at Berlin, San Diego, Moscow and WTA Tour Championships. Such an excellent performance triggered a giant leap in her doubles ranking. From her year-starting doubles ranking No. 94, she reached No. 6 at the end of the year. In singles, she manage to win a runner up title in a WTA tour event at 's-Hertogenbosch losing to Eleni Daniilidou in the final and finished the year 19 in WTA ranking.

Winning First WTA Tour Title
Having played most tournaments (27) among the year-end top ten players, Elena Dementieva could manage to finish the year in the top ten for the first time in 2003. Most importantly, she won her first WTA tour singles title this year at Amelia Island, Florida defeating second seed Lindsay Davenport in the final. En route to final, she defeated Daniela Hantuchova in the quarter final and top seed Justine Henin in the semi final and she was the lowest seed at ten to win the tournament in the tournament’s 24-year history. Later that year, she won two back to back WTA tour events at Bali and Shanghai. At Bali, Elena Dementieva defeated top seed Chanda Rubin in the final, and in Shanghai, she once again defeated Chanda Rubin to win the title. Though her performance in Australian Open and French Open was not impressive getting out from the first round, Dementieva bounced back in the Wimbledon reaching the fourth round before falling to top seed Serena Williams. In the U.S. Open, she went on to reach the fourth round, but failed to make it to the quarter final being defeated by Jennifer Capriati. However, overall her performance in 2003 was really something special as she appeared as a more matured player this year. She finished the year at no. 8 in the singles ranking.

Dementieva’s success in doubles continued this year as well, but this time Lina Krasnoroutskaya was her partner. They reached the women’s doubles semi final at Wimbledon defeating the Williams sisters on their way to the semi final. At 's-Hertogenbosch, they won the only doubles title this year. Most importantly, she rose to her career best no. 5 in doubles ranking on 14 April 2003.

Year 2004: A Breakthrough Year for Elena Dementieva
There is no doubt that the year 2004 has been Dementieva’s best year so far in her career. She showed her best ever performance in grand slam tournament this year reaching the final of French Open and U.S. Open. However, she started the year with the experience of first round elimination at Australian Open after losing to today’s star Jelena Jankovic. Even at Wimbledon, she again failed to go beyond the second round being defeated to Sandra Kleinova.

Dementieva reached her first grand slam final at Roland Garros where she failed to outclass sixth seed fellow Russian Anastasia Myskina. Dementieva’s coach Olga Morozova at that time was the last grand slam finalists from Russia at the French Open and Wimbledon in 1974. However, Dementieva lost in the final, but she may not have any regret for that defeat thinking of the significance of that match. In fact, that was the first all-Russian final at a Grand Slam tournament. En route to the final of French Open, she defeated some of the best players of that time including fifth seed Lindsay Davenport in the fourth round, third seed Amelie Mauresmo in the quarter final, fourteenth seed Paola Suarez in the semi final. She reached the final of U.S. Open in the similar fashion and set up another all-Russian grand slam final as fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova was the other finalist. However, Dementieva failed to win the grand slam title second that year being lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 7-5 in the match. On her way to the final, she defeated 10^th seed Vera Zvonareva in the fourth round, second seed Amelie Mauresmo in the quarter final and eighth seed Jennifer Capriati in the semi final. Dementieva also appeared in 2004 Athens Olympics Games, but failed to replicate her success of Sydney after getting out from the first round after a three-set defeat to Alicia Molik.

Following her success at U.S. Open, on 25 October, Elena Dementieva rose to no. 4 in WTA ranking, though only for two weeks. Besides the success in the two grand slam tournaments, she also won a tour title at Hasselt, Belgium defeating Elena Bovina in the final. Besides, Dementieva won against several top ten players in different tournament this year including Venus Williams, Nadia Petrova, Jelena Dokic, Lindsay Davenport, Amelie Mauresmo, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Jelena Jankovic and Jennifer Capriati. Dementieva finished the year 6^th in WTA ranking; her best ever finish in a season until today.

Consistent Performance During 2005-2006
Elena Dementieva has become an ultimate favorite for any major tournament since 2004. With consistent performance, she reached the fourth round of Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. Then in the U.S. Open, she reached the semi final before losing to Pierce in the final, but en route to the final, Dementieva defeated reigning world no. 1 Davenport in the quarter final, her second victory over a world no. 1. She also managed to win two runner-up titles in WTA tour, one at Charleston losing to Justine Henin and another one at Philadelphia losing to Amelie Mauresm in the final. However, her performance in Fed Cup was impressive leading Russia to win the tournament defeating France 3-1 in the final and all three points of Russia was scored by Dementieva defeating Pierce and Mauresmo in the singles and along with Dinara Safina, she won the doubles match as well. Dementieva finished the year 8^th in the ranking, third straight year to finish in the top ten of WTA ranking.

The year 2006 was another proof of her consistency on the court reaching quarter finals of two grand slam tournaments and winning two WTA tour titles at Los Angeles and Istanbul, Turkey. She reached the quarter final of Wimbledon before falling to fellow Russian Maria Sharapova and then lost to Jelena Jankovic in the U.S. Open quarter final, whereas her performance in Australian Open and Roland Garros was not excellent as she got out of the tournaments in the first and third round respectively. However, she was consistent throughout the year reaching final of one and semi final of four WTA tournaments. Consequently, for the fourth consecutive year, Dementieva finished the year in the top ten of WTA ranking.

Finishing the Year 2007 out of Top Ten after Four Years
The year 2007 may not be that much successful a year for Elena Dementieva as she could not go beyond fourth round of any of the four grand slam tournaments. In Australian Open, she lost to tenth seed Nicole Vaidisova in the quarter final. However, as I mentioned earlier that consistency was found consistently in her performance over the last few years as she reached the third round of all of the other three grand slam tournaments in 2007. She won two WTA titles this year at Istanbul, Turkey and Moscow, Russia. However, it was not enough to keep her place in the top ten by the end of the year as she finished 11^th in the ranking.

A Strong Come Back in 2008
Elena Dementieva might have taken it as a challenge to come back in the top ten again and so far she has been on the right track and currently holds 5^th position in WTA ranking and recently reached the semi final of Wimbledon before losing to Venus Williams. She earlier reached the fourth round of Australian Open 2008 where she lost to the eventual champion Maria Sharapova and played in the quarter final of French Open 2008 where she lost to fellow Russian Dinara Safina in the quarter final. So far, she won one WTA tour title at Dubai, UAE.

Elena Dementieva: Playing Style

Dementieva has been pretty much consistent on court over the last few years. She has developed her game a lot over the years and reached very close to her top level, though I think, she is yet to flourish every bit of her potential and I believe that she can play better tennis than what she is playing now.

Dementieva’s Strength

The main strength of Elena Dementieva lies in her power and speed, which mingled with her aggressive kind of playing style, can be lethal for any opponent. Besides, her defense off the ground is also up to the mark. Being an aggressive baseline player, Elena Dementieva is also capable of playing both forehands and backhands, be it open-stance or close-up, at similar ease. Specially, Elena Dementieva’s forehand shots with accurate placement are really excellent very much problematic for the opponent players. Moreover, she is considered as one of the best ground stroke players in WTA.

Dementieva’s Weakness

The mostly known weakness Dementieva possesses lies in her serve, which lacks consistency. In most cases, her first serves are very slow with heavy slice and lack variation. So, once the opponent understand it, her serves become less effective. In tough situations her serves further lose strength. Actually, a foot injury in 2001 during a tournament at Amelia Island, Florida forced her to change service motion and include slice into her service. However, even after recovering from the injury, her service remained same only to slow down service speed and cause double faults many a times. Moreover, question lies in her mental toughness in the big matches as well. For example, she lost in straight sets in both of her grand slam finals she managed to reach so far in her career. However, you can not question on her mental strength when it comes to three-set matches and tie-breaks. Actually, I think, it is not her mental strength; rather her serve is mostly responsible for her failure in some of the big matches she encountered till date.

However, I think, the way she is improving and the kind of skill and talent she has in her, Elena Dementieva can easily become the next big star of tennis. You can get to see some of her on-court actions in About.com and tennisserver.com websites.

Elena Dementieva in Grand Slam Tournaments

As I earlier mentioned that Dementieva could not yet add any grand slam title to her credit. Her best grand slam performance came four years earlier when she reached the final of French Open and U.S. Open in 2004, but both times lost to her opponents Anastasia Myskina and Svetlana Kuznetsova respectively. Dementieva first appeared in a grand slam tournament in Australian Open 1999. Since then she never missed any grand slam tournament so far. Here, I am giving a table showing her overall grand slam records till date:

Tournament (Seeding of Dementieva)	Stage/ Round	Opponent (Seeding)	Score
Wimbledon 2008 (5^th)	Semi Final	Venus Williams (7)	6–1, 7–6(3)
French Open 2008 (7^th)	Quarter Final	Dinara Safina (13)	4–6, 7–6(5), 6–0
Australian Open 2008 (11^th)	Fourth Round	Maria Sharapova (5)	6–2, 6–0
U.S. Open 2007 (14^th)	Third Round	Sybille Bammer (19)	6–1, 6–2
Wimbledon 2007 (12^th)	Third Round	Tamira Paszek	3–6, 6–2, 6–3
French Open 2007 (13^th)	Third Round	Marion Bartoli (18)	6–2, 6–4
Australian Open 2007 (7^th)	Fourth Round	Nicole Vaidisova (10)	6–3, 6–3
U.S. Open 2006 (4^th)	Quarter Final	Jelena Jankovic (19)	6–2, 6–1
Wimbledon 2006 (7^th)	Quarter Final	Maria Sharapova (4)	6–1, 6–4
French Open 2006 (6^th)	Third Round	Shahar Peer (31)	6–4, 7–5
Australian Open 2006 (9^th)	First Round	Julia Schruff	7–5, 6–2
U.S. Open 2005 (6^th)	Semi Final	Mary Pierce (12)	3–6, 6–2, 6-2
Wimbledon 2005 (6^th)	Fourth Round	Anastasia Myskina (9)	1–6, 7–6(9), 7–5
French Open 2005 (4^th)	Fourth Round	Elena Likhovtseva (16)	7–6(3), 5–7, 7–5
Australian Open 2005 (6^th)	Fourth Round	Patty Schnyder (12)	6–7(6), 7–6(4), 6-2
U.S. Open 2004 (6^th)	Final	Svetlana Kuznetsova (9)	6–3, 7–5
Wimbledon 2004 (6^th)	First Round	Sandra Kleinova	6–4, 1–6, 6–4
French Open 2004 (9^th)	Final	Anastasia Myskina (6)	6–1, 6–2
Australian Open 2004 (7^th)	First Round	Jelena Jankovic	6–1, 6–4
U.S. Open 2003 (11^th)	Fourth Round	Jennifer Capriati (6)	6–2, 7–5
Wimbledon 2003 (15^th)	Fourth Round	Serena Williams (1)	6–2, 6–2
French Open 2003 (13^th)	First Round	Maria Sanchez Lorenzo	6–3, 6–3
Australian Open 2003 (17^th)	First Round	Barbara Schwartz (Q)	5–7, 6–4, 6–2
U.S. Open 2002 (12^th)	Second Round	Francesca Schiavone	7–6(7), 6–3
Wimbledon 2002 (12^th)	Fourth Round	Justine Henin (6)	7–6(4), 7–6(5)
French Open 2002 (13^th)	Fourth Round	Clarisa Fernandez	3–6, 6–2, 6–3
Australian Open 2002 (12^th)	Fourth Round	Justine Henin (6)	6–0, 6–3
U.S. Open 2001 (11^th)	Fourth Round	Kim Clijsters (5)	7–5, 4–6. 6–2
Wimbledon 2001 (10^th)	Third Round	Anke Huber (18)	6–0, 6–2
French Open 2001 (7^th)	Second Round	Henrieta Nagyova	7–5, 7–5
Australian Open 2001 (9^th)	Third Round	Daja Bedanova	2–6, 7–6(5), 6–3
U.S. Open 2000	Semi Final	Lindsay Davenport (2)	6–2, 7–6(5)
Wimbledon 2000	First Round	Nadia Petrova	6–1, 6–1
French Open 2000	Second Round	Virginie Razzano (WC)	Walkover
Australian Open 2000	Third Round	Julie Halard-Decugis (9)	3–6, 6–4 6–2
U.S. Open 1999	Third Round	Conchita Martinez (16)	6–2, 2–6, 6–4
Wimbledon 1999 (LL)	First Round	Dominique van Roost (15)	3–6, 6–4, 6–4
French Open 1999 (LL)	Second Round	Nathalie Dechy	6–2, 1–6, 7–5
Australian Open 1999 (Qualifier)	Second Round	Martina Hingis (2)	6–3, 6–2
US Open 1998	Lost in Qual.	Alice Canepa	7–6(4), 6–2

Awards and Achievements in Career

It is true that the 26-year old Russian tennis star could not yet taste any grand slam title, neither in singles nor in doubles, but she has successfully set herself as one of the toughest opponents available in women’s tennis today. Dementieva received Russia’s Female of the Year Award in 2001 for finishing the year at the 15^th of WTA ranking. She achieved top five place of WTA ranking in both singles and doubles. In singles, her highest ranking is no. 4, while in doubles she could reach career high no. 5 till date. She entered in the top 20 in 2001, and since then, she never finished a year out of top 20 in WTA ranking. Until now, she has won over two reigning world no. 1, first time being in 2001 Moscow against Martina Hingis and then at U.S. Open 2005 against Lindsey Davenport. She was named WTA Tour’s Most Improved Player in 2000.

Elena Dementieva was part of the first all-Russian grand slam final along with Anastasia Myskina in the final of French Open 2004. Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin was present at Roland Garros to experience that historic match. Before started playing professional tennis, Dementieva had some notable success in junior level too. She played in the semi final of girl’s singles and was the finalists of girl’s doubles at French Open. Besides, she won 1996 Orange Bowl 16s and as a member of the Russian Connolly Continental Cup won the 1998 title.

Personal Life and Trivia

So far, I wrote about Dementieva’s career and her success on the court. Here, I am stating some information about her personal life and some trivia about Elena Dementieva:

Elena Dementieva loves animal and has a Yorkshire terrier named Patrick. Seeing Australian Wild animals was her most memorable experience.
Other than tennis, she likes to play chess and skiing.
I already mentioned that Dementieva is a fluent speaker of Russian and French.
She is a fan of America’s professional ice hockey team Buffalo Sabres and the team’s right wing Maxim Afinogeno is her boyfriend.
In an online voting, she was elected as the most stylish player on tour at the 2006 Zurich Open tournament.
Mother Vera is the current coach of Dementieva and her mother travels with her in different competitions around the world.
French Open is Dementieva’s favorite tournament.

At last, I would like to say that Elena Dementieva has not flourished each and every bit of her potential so far and that is disappointing for the Dementieva fans. She has everything what it takes to win grand slam title, but unfortunately she could not yet win any grand slam title. However, if you look at her performance in Fed Cup and other tour matches, you can not deny the kind of class, skill and the enthusiasm she holds on the court. It is true that she is now at 26, but still I think, she has some great years ahead of her and I hope, she will win grand slam title in the near future.

Related articles:

Wikipedia

Elena Dementieva’s official website