Elena Dementieva

Elena has been a tennis professional for ten years and by modern standards is a veteran at age 26. She has yet to win a Grand Slam but has made two Grand Slam finals, both in 2004. In the French Open Final she lost to Anastasia Myskina and in the final at the US Open she was beaten in two close sets by Svetlana Kuznetzova. She has a career tally of eleven singles titles and has been a runner-up a further twelve times. She has reached the semi finals in the last two Grand Slams.

She went one better than she did in the 2000 Olympic Games when she won the Gold Medal in Bejing in August, where she beat Dinara Safina in the final. She is currently ranked at number four in the world.

Elena is known as an exceptionally fast attacking baseliner, who has powerful ground strokes, particularly on her forehand side, where she is renowned for her placement of shot and her ability to flatten her shots out. Unfortunately, Elena’s serve is her weak point and has been responsible for many of her defeats. Her serve is particularly vulnerable in close games and is regarded as one of the worst serve’s on the WTA tour.

She has reached the last 16 in the last two Australian Open Championships, losing in 2007 to Nicole Vaidisova and last year to Maria Sharapova.

Elena is a 16/1 shot in the Australian Open odds to take the Ladies singles title this year.