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Dementieva Attempts Defense at WTA Istanbul
Posted on May 19, 2008
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Final preparations for the year's second Grand Slam event take place this week at concurrent events in Strasbourg, France and Istanbul, Turkey. At the $200,000 Istanbul Cup the main storyline will be Elena Dementieva trying to defend her title from a year ago, as the 26-year-old Russian holds the top seed at the Tier III tournament on the Turkish red clay.
Dementieva has had a strong start to the 2008 season, falling early at her two Australian swing events at Sydney and the Australian Open but then reaching the quarterfinals or better at her five ventures since, including winning her ninth career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title at Dubai, finishing runner-up at Berlin (to Dinara Safina) and making the semifinals at Paris [Indoors] and Charleston. This week she will be the heavy favorite, as the only Top 10 player in the Tier III field.
Among Dementieva's toughest competition will be Agnieszka Radwanska, who ranks just a few spots away from the Top 10 elite, and a strong performer in the pair's two previous meetings; in their first meeting she pushed Dementieva to three sets in the quarterfinals of Warsaw in 2006, then later that year beat the Russian in straight sets in the same round at the Tier II event in Luxembourg. Radwanska has five Top 10 wins to her name and thus would not be much of an underdog should she and Dementieva face off in a championship match between the Top 2 seeds later this week.
Among those standing in the way of a Top 2 final will be Nadia Petrova, who, despite having quite a rough go of things so far this year, can always draw confidence from a wealth of experience, which includes seven titles and a career-high ranking of No.3 in the world. Seeded No.3, she could face Dementieva in the semifinals, and wouldn't be much of an underdog in that one, considering she is 7-4 against her (and one of Dementieva's wins was from an injury retirement). Rounding out the seeds are Olga Govortsova, Sofia Arvidsson, Akgul Amanmuradova, Jill Craybas and Tsvetana Pironkova.
This is the fourth straight year Istanbul has been a Tour stop. Venus Williams beat Nicole Vaidisova for the inaugural title in 2005, followed by Shahar Peer winning in 2006 (over Anastasia Myskina) and Dementieva (over Aravane Rezai).
-- Sony Ericsson WTA Tour
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