Dementieva Ends Career
Elena Dementieva holding her mother after announcing retirement in Doha
Francesca Schiavone would win the match and end Dementieva’s career. This before all of the eight players who qualified at the tournament would be around the Russian for taking pictures. The Italian beat Elena in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 at the WTA Championships, the end of the game seeing the Russian waving goodbye to both the Doha crowd and tennis. She just turned 29 this month to end this season with two wins, in Sydney and Paris. It was also the end of many years of fight against the biggest names and top players. Dementieva herself was very often among the top 10 in WTA and, although she couldn’t reach the top spot, she would perform important wins against the leaders.
The Russian reached her peak in the spring of 2009 when she stood third in the rankings for five weeks. She entered among the best 20 players in the world in 2000 to maintain her position for more than 500 weeks. Since then, she wouldn’t get older, but better. She won her most precious in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics when Dementieva wore the golden medal after winning the final. The Russian, who came fourth seeded in Doha this week playing alongside eight of the best players, reached 16 WTA finals, two of which Grand Slams six years ago. However, she has never won a major trophy though. She also played at least in the semi finals nine times in entire career. On the other hand, she proved to be a very good team-mate. Apart from the two finals at Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows, Dementieva paired throughout the years with vary players at doubles. She triumphed in 2002 at the WTA Championships when paired with Slovakian Janette Husarova. It was the same year when she was beating for the first time a top ranked player. The Russian ousted Martina Hingis 6-2, 6-2 home in Moscow in the quarter finals. She played in the same time the Wimbledon semi final one year later in doubles. She was very close though to take the US Open in doubles, as well. Dementieva reached the Flushing Meadows finals in 2002 and 2005.
As for the other two Grand Slams tournaments, Elena reached the Wimbledon semi finals in 2008 and 2009, last year playing also the Australian Open semi final. Now, she is ending a 12-year career in Doha, at the WTA Championships she never had the chance to win, but in doubles. Said the Russian after the game against Schiavone: “This year in Doha was very special for me because it was my last tournament. I’d first like to thank Stacey Allaster. We’re very lucky to have you as the leader of the tour. You do so much to make our tour better, trying to take women’s tennis to a different level. As a player I want to thank you for that.”
Of course, she would thank to all of those who stood next to her, including the fans and family, but also to the players she with whom she shared all the surfaces. Her first WTA title came in 2003 when Dementieva beat Amanda Coetzer at the Bausch&Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida. 2004 brought her a wonderful race in Miami where she defeated world champion Venus Williams in the quarter final, but Venus’s sister would revenge with a win in the final. One year later, the 24-year-old at that time Russian reached six semi finals. But the US Open quarter final saw her collecting the second win over a top ranked player, Lindsay Davenport, whom the Russian beat in three sets. But the next round saw Dementieva leaving the Grand Slam after losing to Mary Pierce.
2006 barely started as the Russian could find her form. She left the Australian Open from the very first round, being eliminated by Julia Schruff. As revenge, she would immediately win in Tokyo, at the Toray Pacific Open. Russian’s road included Katarina Srebotnik, Nicole Vaidisova and Anastasia Myskina. She met afterwards Martina Hingis, whom Dementieva beat and made her declare at the end of the game that if she keeps playing in the same manner all the time, she could win Grand Slams, as well. For sure identical performances came, but Dementieva still couldn’t win a major. Although she didn’t win any grand, she surely succeeded in gaining many fans and attracted lot of sympathy around the world.
