Elena Dementieva Announces Career Retirement

The Russian Tennis star who has announced her retirement from the sport. A look at her career which led her to Olympic Gold.



The world of women's Tennis was left shocked when Russian star, Elena Dementieva, announced her retirement following defeat at a tournament in Doha.



Dementieva was ranked number nine when she made the decision to quit and reached as high as number three at her peak last year. The defeat in the WTA Championships signalled the end of her career when Francesca Schiavone beat her in straight sets 6-4 6-2.



She addressed the crowd in the arena to tell them of her decision and thanked ‘all the players for an amazing experience and some wonderful memories.’



Fellow Russian star, Vera Zvonareva, then spoke to say ‘Russia is proud of you, proud to have you.’



Earlier in the tournament she defeated Samantha Stosur but was defeated by Caroline Wozniacki amid fears she was struggling with an ongoing ankle injury.



The highlight of the Russian’s career came in 2008 when she won gold at the Beijing Olympics with a victory over Dinara Safina. Eight years earlier she claimed silver in the same competition in Sydney, aged just 19.



Record at the Tennis Opens

Elena failed to ever get her hands on a major title, but came close on two occasions in 2004 when she finished runner up at both the French and US Opens. Fellow Russians, Anastasia Myskina and Svetlana Kuznetsova beat her in the respective finals.



Her impressive record saw her reach the final four on seven other occasions and at least on once at each of the big four events; proving her class on all surfaces.



In total, Dementieva won six WTA and three ITF tournaments with her career prize money estimated at around $14,000,000. Her most successful tournament year, aside from the majors, came in 2009 where she was victorious at tournament’s in Toronto, Auckland and Sydney.



Elena was rarely eliminated in the early stages of the Open’s since her 2005 season which saw her reach the final sixteen in three of the major's, and a semi final at the US Open.



Fed Cup Performances

Representing her country in the Fed Cup seemed to bring out something special and she proudly boasts to hold the best ever record for a Russian player in the competition. Her singles record produced 19 wins out of 26 games played, with a further three wins and three defeats in doubles matches.



In 2005, Dementieva and Russia took on France in the final of the event. The best of five competition eventually ended in a 3-2 victory to Russia with Dementieva stealing the show by winning both her singles encounters and was part of the successful doubles team in the deciding match.



Dementieva will be remembered as part of a golden generation of Russian talent that has came through in the last decade and will count herself unlucky that her glittering career was never capped off with major success.



Source: Suite101.com