Elena Dementieva announced her shock retirement from tennis at the WTA Championship in Doha. The Russian who is currently ranked nine delivered the news after losing to Francesca Schiavone of Italy.
Demetieva reached a career high ranking of three in 2009 and also won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics. She reached two grand slam finals during her career both in 2004 at the French and the US Open where she lost to Anastania Myskina and Svetlana Kuznetsova respectively in all Russian finals. On seven other occasions she reached the semi-finals at Grand Slam events but she could never return to a final. Dementieva also won silver at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and led Russia to Fed Cup victory in 2005.
Dementieva was often criticized for her weak serve which eventually let her down during the championship matches. Dementieva enjoyed her greatest success at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where she beat Serena Williams, Vera Zvonareva and Dinara Safina on her way to the gold medal. She won 16 singles titles during her 12-year career on the WTA Tour and six in doubles, earning almost £9m in prize money. She was part of the Russian dominance in women’s tennis in the last decade along with Sharapova, Kuznetsova, Safina and Zvonareva.
US Open champion Kim Clijsters paid tribute to Dementieva, saying: “She has been one of the players I grew up with playing in juniors. It’s nice to see her looking forward to something new in her life”.
It is left to be seen whether she makes a comeback in near future as so often been the case with women tennis players in recent times.
