Comments on: Rib Injury Nearly Forced Elena Dementieva into Retirement

By: NonWoot

NonWoot — Sun, 27 May 2007 23:22:21 +0000

Elena is not past her prime per se, but she is past her prime in terms of ability. She just can’t seem to improve her usually pathetic serve, therefore she will be really lucky to ever capture a major. I really want her to too.

By: Aaress

Aaress — Wed, 02 May 2007 01:38:50 +0000

Thanks for mentioning that about the finals Chris – she’s lost a lot of close matches.

Judging a player’s prime is pretty tricky. Six months ago I might have said Serena’s prime was long gone!

I do think Elena will regain her spot in the top 10, but I’m not convinced that she’ll match her peak in 2004. Her serve is such a liability and she has a difficult time competing against the likes of Sharapova, Venus, Serena, and Justine.

She did fight hard today, especially when Tu served for the match, and like you said, that’s a good sign for the future. Plus her game works on just about any surface, and that is what has kept her inside of the top ten all these years.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:44:20 +0000

She may only have six titles, but look who’s beaten her in finals – Mauresmo, Henin, Sharapova, Myskina, Kuznetsova. 17 finals is decent.

Anyway, I’m curious: do you think Elena’s past her prime? Or is she still within a decent shot of being a top-10 player?

After being down 5-4 in the third, I knew that if Elena could break back, that her fire to win was still there. That waned since she won LA, and that was just the second sign since then of her amazing resilience (the first being her 46 75 75 win over Srebotnik in October). Most other struggling players with form would have just given up, but I ramble!

I don’t really care if Elena ever gets back in the top 10, I just want her to get that Slam. Then she really can retire in peace.