WARSAW, Poland - It hasn't been a dream season so far for Elena Dementieva, but on a chilly Tuesday in Warsaw she made a winning start to her return to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, reaching the second round of the Tier II JS Cup with a dramatic three set win over Meilen Tu. Venus Williams' first match of the week was postponed due to darkness.
Dementieva, the No.7 seed, not only rallied back from a one set deficit but survived her American opponent serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set, reeling off the last three games of the match to clinch the 67(5) 60 75 win. It was a scratchy battle; 20 of the 30 service games ended in breaks, but the Russian just seemed happy to prevail.
"It was extremely difficult conditions," she said. "It was freezing out there and the snow was a new experience in my life. It was a tough match for me."
This is Dementieva's first event since Antwerp in February, where she suffered a rib injury and had to pull out of her opening match. She missed out on defending a hefty amount of points in that time; last year in that stretch she won the Tier I in Tokyo and reached the final of another Tier I at Indian Wells. Having begun the year ranked No.8, she comes into Warsaw at No.13 but hungry to get back.
"I always have problems with my serve but coming back after three broken ribs and not playing for eight weeks is really difficult," she added. "It takes some time to get everything back."
Dementieva was the only seed in action Tuesday. The Top 4 seeds all have first round byes and start on Wednesday or Thursday. No.5 Anna Chakvetadze and No.6 Nadia Petrova both won openers Monday, while No.8 Katarina Srebotnik lost.
Another marquee name that was supposed to play her opener on Tuesday, Venus Williams, will have to wait until Wednesday to start her week. Darkness pushed her first round encounter against Michaella Krajicek onto the next day's schedule.
Other winners were Anna-Lena Groenefeld, Elena Vesnina, Tathiana Garbin, Agnieszka Radwanska and qualifiers Julia Vakulenko and Kateryna Bondarenko.
Four first round doubles matches also took the court, with winners including No.1 seeds Mara Santangelo and Srebotnik and No.3 seeds Tu and Galina Voskoboeva.
In addition to the Williams-Krajicek battle, the first four second rounds are up Wednesday, including No.3 Svetlana Kuznetsova facing Kateryna Bondarenko. (WTA)
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