Elena Dementieva won her 2008 Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships title the hard way, and she will not relinquish it easily when she returns to the UAE in February.
The 2009 Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships has announced that Dementieva and 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic will compete in next month’s Premier tournament.
Dementieva kick-started one of the most successful seasons of her career with a victory in her first ever trip to Dubai.
The week began comfortably with a straight sets win over Patty Schnyder in the first round and the surrender of just three games to Alona Bondarenko in the second. But then she was stretched to the limit for the remainder of the tournament as she battled to overcome Ivanovic in the quarter-finals, Francesca Schiavone in the semis and then her countrywoman Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final, all in three sets.
“I think that was the biggest moment of my career when I came to Dubai last year and won the title, beating lots of good players in the process,” said Dementieva. “Then, from that moment on I just started to play so much better and it helped my confidence for the whole rest of the season, so Dubai is definitely the tournament to remember for me.”
Ana Ivanovic is hopeful that after three previous attempts, she will finally find success in Dubai.
The reigning French Open champion failed to get through the qualifying rounds when she first competed in 2005, and last year on her second visit she defeated Nicole Vaidisova before going down in three sets in the quarter-finals to eventual champion Elena Dementieva.
This year her task will be even tougher, as she faces a field that includes all 10 of the world’s top 10 players.
Ivanovic will join Jelena Jankovic, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Dinara Safina, Venus Williams and defending champion Elena Dementieva in the region’s most prestigious tournament which, under the ATP and WTA restructure, is the only ATP 500 and only WTA Premier 5 sanctioned Championships in the Middle East. And with this new, enhanced status there is now a total prize money pot of $4 million on offer.
Play at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, which is held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, begins on February 15th 2009 with the WTA Tour event and continues with the ATP tournament from February 23rd.
