by Bobby Chintapalli, Contributing Writer
I didn’t root for Elena Dementieva because she’s perfect. If anything I rooted for her because she’s not—just like the rest of us—but tried anyway.
I rarely root for or against anyone, hoping simply for good tennis. But I have my soft spots, and Elena Dementieva is one of them. (For the record, Venus Williams is another.) This doesn’t mean I agree with everything she's said or done. And I appreciate several qualities of hers in other players, too. I’ve written about those players, or will eventually. This piece though is about Elena Dementieva…and maybe a little about me.
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I rooted for her because she loves tennis…and showed up to play it.
Not everyone who plays professional tennis likes professional tennis. (Just ask Andre Agassi.) Dementieva seemed to love it. She watches (for fun!) and has in the past mentioned doing something tennis-related after she retires. As a fan who loves tennis, it’s fun to watch a tennis player who shares a similar affection.
Dementieva has achieved at least the 80 percent of success that is, it’s said, just showing up. She played her first tour main draw match 13 years ago. By this year’s French Open she had the longest consecutive Grand Slam appearance streak of any active player—46 straight Slams. Think about that: She was healthy enough—and good enough—to play in Grand Slam main draws for more than 11 straight years.
Her ability to keep playing at that level likely had something to do with her desire to keep improving her level. After losing to Sam Stosur at the French Open last year, she complimented Stosur’s “impressive” play and said that to compete, she herself needed to work on her “physical condition, to get in a better shape.” Because, you know, fitness has always been such a challenge for Dementieva. Yes, sometimes it was too much. Heck, the woman tried to improve during matches—isn’t that what all those air forehands and serves were about?
I rooted for her because, oh yeah, she’s good at tennis.
She plays offense well, aided by some of the fiercest groundstrokes in the business. She plays defense well, aided by some of the best movement around. (Sania Mirza said Dementieva's movement is one of the tennis skills she admires most.) And her return of return of serve (yes, I made that up) can be a thing of beauty. Don’t take my word for it; watch last year’s Wimbledon semifinal against Serena Williams.
Of course, there’s that serve, her greatest weakness. I suspect it’s another reason I rooted for her. She had a glaring problem with a huge part of her game—like so many of us recreational players do—yet she still managed to play with the big girls. Sometimes I wonder if she succeeded not despite her serve, but because of it. Like a blind man whose other senses get sharper as a result of the blindness, perhaps the rest of her game improved to compensate for that downright wacky serve.
She first entered the Top 10 nearly a decade ago and has consistently been in the Top 20 for the past seven years. She reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 3 last year and her career-high doubles ranking of No. 5 a few years before that. Her resume includes Olympic gold and silver medals, a Fed Cup title for Russia, four Grand Slam finals (two in singles, two in doubles) and 16 tournament titles.
Only five active players have won more titles, and they’ve all won majors. It’s often suggested that she’s the best player never to have won one. Several key stats suggest that’s true, among active players at least.
What those stats also suggest is that she’s one of the game's best players—with or without a major. Having a higher career win percentage than a Grand Slam winner isn’t the same as having a Grand Slam title. But is the stat worth remembering? I think so.
I rooted for her because she’s classy.
She was asked about the lack of a Grand Slam title and that serve...again and again and again. Yet she rarely seemed bothered by it. Until maybe Beijing a few weeks ago. Personally, I wouldn’t have waited that long.
But she managed sometimes to bring humor to the situation, as she did after her loss to Stosur at last year’s French Open. Asked whether the loss was “one of your bigger disappointments here in Paris,” she thought for a second and replied, laughing, “I had so many.”
She can be sassy/classy too, as she was when she defended Dinara Safina and what she endured as the No. 1 player.
Marion Bartoli, no stranger to honesty, said Elena Dementieva is her favorite player. Bartoli’s not alone. Dementieva has won both the Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award and the Tour Fan Favorite Singles Player of the Year. I haven’t interacted with her much in press conferences, but one time when I did, I sat across from a video blogger so taken with her that he turned red and prayed she wouldn’t notice. (No, I didn’t make this up. He told me so himself.)
I rooted for Dementieva because she’s noisy when she loses a point—I’ve never watched a match she played without wishing I spoke Russian—but rather quiet when she wins one. When her opponent hits a good shot she can show her appreciation, as she did yesterday in Doha, when Stosur hit one in the third-set tiebreaker.
I especially rooted for her because, during the handshake, she smiles little when she wins and, like Venus Williams or Maria Sharapova, smiles big when she loses.
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Soon after hearing about Dementieva’s retirement, I discussed the dire situation with a friend (who happens to be a diehard Serena Williams fan). She humored me as I got louder and louder, faster and faster and then interjected with a question.
“Are we still talking about tennis?”
Now that I think about it, maybe we’re not.
After a while you don’t necessarily watch your favorites play tennis because of the tennis they play. Heck, sometimes you watch despite it. (Dinara Safina fans, you know what I mean.) Chances are, your interest started with some match, forehand or tactic then grew into something bigger, less tangible, more inexplicable. There’s a reason ‘fan’ is short for ‘fanatic’—the word once meant ‘insane person’.
I certainly felt like one during last year’s Wimbledon semifinal after watching Dementieva hit that backhand crosscourt when a down-the-line shot would have gotten her to the final. It was a tough loss for her, but from what I’ve heard and read, she was gracious in her post-match press conference only a half hour later. I can’t forget the missed opportunity against a champion who doles out so few of them, but I also try to remember the fabulous tennis and her attitude afterwards.
Now, as Elena Dementieva clears out her cubicle or does whatever it is retiring tennis players do, I hope it’s true what she told Amelie Mauresmo when Mauresmo retired, and I hope she remembers those words—that life doesn’t end when tennis ends and she’ll succeed at whatever comes next, because talented people are talented in everything.