We all like sports. Someone likes to do it and leads an active lifestyle, while someone loves to cheer for their favorite team or athlete. Among all sports, there are a number of those that are of particular interest, such as tennis. Wimbledon and the Olympic Games have seen many champions, of course, among them were Russians. One of the brightest stars is tennis player Elena Dementieva.
Family, childhood and first steps in sports
The famous tennis player was born in Moscow on October 15, 1981. Her father was an electrical engineer, and her mother for many years was practically her personal trainer. The girl received a good education (at the moment she is fluent in English and French). Her mother brought her to sports. Lena was then only seven years old, but even then they paid attention to her and took her to the Spartak sports society. The first coach for her was Rauza Islanova, who accompanied the young talent until 1996, when Dementieva moved to the sports society of CSKA. The family strongly supported Elena in her sports endeavors.
Youth
Until 1995, Elena Dementieva played exclusively with her peers, showing good results, and as a result, she reached the round of senior juniors.
Then she ran into more qualified rivals, which allowed her not only to gain experience, but also to get to the finals in the single player tournament at the Indonesian G3 competitions. The next year also became indicative, Dementieva increasingly appears in status tournaments, and her position in the ranking is gradually growing. In 1997, she plays in the doubles tournament. Anastasia Myskina became her partner, together they managed to get to the semifinals in Milan. On this, their duet did not break up, in the same year they helped defeat the national team in the junior Federation Cup. The end of the 1997 season was successful, Elena Dementieva was able to get to the semifinals in such serious competitions as the Orange Bowl. 1998 began with several major junior tournaments, for which the Muscovite purposefully prepared. At one of them, namely at Roland Garros, Lena played both singles and doubles. And got to the semifinals. This time her partner was Nadezhda Petrova. Another major tournament, the European Championship, was also successful. Dementieva and then showed herself in the best way, once again reaching the semifinals. The last of this season and in the youthful career of a Muscovite was the Orange Bowl, where she won a well-deserved victory, having won six matches in a row.
Play style
From the very beginning of her career, tennis player Dementieva Elena was distinguished by her features in the game. These include both advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage of a Muscovite was always her excellent physical fitness, which allowed her to act as efficiently as possible on the entire court area.
Sometimes this was a key moment, especially during long matches, when in the end the opponent could no longer actively reflect Elena's innings. The disadvantages include the instability of the psychological state, which was noticed by experts in 2000. Also here you can add a weak supply, which was often the cause of defeat. However, in the future, the Muscovite made a lot of efforts to overcome her shortcomings and turn them into advantages. Among other things, it can be noted that the manner of playing Dementieva is precisely the attacking one.
Adult tour
In an adult tournament, a Russian woman first appeared in 1995. This happened at the Moscow ITF tournament, where Dementieva was not only able to exceed all expectations, but also easily won the tournament. Participation in matches of this level did not go unnoticed, because gaining experience in professional competitions, a Muscovite was gaining greater success and gaining more and more titles. The already played duet with Anastasia Myskina brought them an unconditional victory in many competitions. But directly received the status of a professional player in 1998. And this was the beginning of a series of new victories, which are replete with her biography. Elena Dementieva qualified for the first time to participate in the WTA tournament, which was held in Prague. Here she managed to show herself in the best possible way, playing along with Amelie Moresmo, the 34th racket of the world. In general, this year was successful, because by the end of Elena managed to win back just over 150 positions, which allowed her to enter the Top-200 rating.
The next stage of Dementieva’s career was qualification for the Grand Slam tournament in 1999. In the same year, she entered the adult national team of Russia, and in the Federation Cup she helped to earn a point against the Americans. She was then barely 18 years old, but she had already achieved high results and established herself as a professional. The season of 2000, Elena Dementieva graduated in the rank of the twelfth racket of the world, which was a huge achievement for her just begun career. In 2003, the tennis player also visited Wimbledon, where she reached the semifinals. Helena's further career is associated not only with singles, but also as part of the Russian national team. So, for example, in 2005 she won the Federation Cup.
Olympic Games
Since 2000, Dementyeva has passed qualifying competitions for participation in Olympic tennis tournaments three times in a row. In Australia, to the great surprise of many, she managed to get to the finals, although at that time in the ranking she was only in seventeenth place. For gold, she had to fight with an American, the second racket of the world, Venus Williams. However, Elena lost to her and took second place on the Olympic podium.
At the Olympic tournament in Greece, Elena failed to perform well. But as for the last Olympic Games, which Muscovite performed, then she already showed herself in all its glory, having won gold. The photo of Elena Dementieva shows how pleased she is to receive such a high award. In principle, all the Russians managed to excel in Beijing, because it was they who occupied the entire podium.
Deterioration
Shortly before the last Olympics, in 2007, a sharp decline was observed in Dementieva's career. It was then, for the first time in her career, that she was unable to get into the WTA championship. This was a big blow. Most likely, the injuries that have literally pursued her recently have affected the decline in the tennis player's characteristics. However, this did not stop Elena from gathering her courage and performing brilliantly in Beijing in 2008.
Career ending
2010 was the final year in the tennis career of Dementieva - she spent the last season as a professional. At that time, she still held in the ranking of the ten most powerful tennis players on the planet, however, health problems did not allow her to move on. At first, she did not think about leaving, but the first pass for the first time in 11 years already said that she could not play at the same pace. In May, Elena made her last attempt to reach the final of the Grand Slam tournament, however, already in the semifinals, she had to refuse to participate due to pain. This was an emotional act, not every athlete will decide on this, so Elena Dementieva believes. The latest news about her sports career was that she decided to take part in the Persian Hopman Cup. However, the thought that this was the last tournament in such a brilliant career, of course, was crushed by a stone load, it was hard to play not physically, but just emotionally.
Awards and Merits
Over the course of her career, Dementieva has earned many awards, including the orders that the President of the Russian Federation personally handed to her. It is worth noting that she made a huge contribution to the development of physical culture and sports in Russia. In total, she has three awards of the highest standard: the Order of Friendship, the Order of Honor and the Order of Merit for the Motherland, Elena received them respectively in 2001, 2009 and 2010. Since 2011, she has been a member of the Russian Tennis Hall of Fame.
Personal life
High-level athletes are usually the last to care about their personal lives. Elena Dementieva was also distinguished by this. A wedding, children and a quiet family life could exist for her so far only in dreams. All the forces went into preparing for the competitions and participating in them.
The personal life of the athlete has never been announced. Therefore, for a very long time, the relationship of Elena Dementieva and the famous hockey player Maxim Afinogenov was hidden from the general public. They had known each other since 2004, from the Roland Garros tournament, where Maxim was present as a fan. The direct acquaintance occurred at a party regarding the victory of Russian tennis players in the French championship. Their relationship could be called rather romantic, since most of the time they were separated by vast distances. However, despite the remoteness, they continued to maintain contact, and even occasionally met.
Having noticed Elena and Maxim together in 2007, the journalists hastened to announce their engagement, but the information was not entirely accurate. At that time, active preparations were underway for the Olympic Games, in which Elena Dementieva also took part, while Athenogenov was at the same time bound by a contract and could not give himself completely to his personal life. But the wedding still took place, however, in 2011. Immediately after the announcement of the completion of her sports career, Elena went to Moscow, where the wedding took place.
Last news
Even as spouses, Elena and Maxim do not live in the same city. Afinogenov continues to pursue a career as a hockey player in St. Petersburg, and the eminent tennis player studies at the Moscow State University at the Faculty of Journalism and works on television. Most importantly, they are happy. Just the other day it became known that Elena Dementieva gave birth. A beautiful girl was born on April 20. It remains only to wish this sporting family happiness.