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WIMBLEDON

June 28, 2008

Elena Dementieva

LONDON, ENGLAND

E. DEMENTIEVA/G. Dulko
7-6, 7-5

Q. Could I just ask a rather stupid and simple question. What happened in those first four games?
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, I felt like I had a really slow start in the beginning. I've played a couple times against Gisela before, and I never beat her. So maybe today in the beginning I felt a little bit nervous and couldn't get, you know, my game in the way.
After Love-4 I just decided not to think about the score, just to play every single point and be focused on the game; I feel like I already lost this set.
I was trying to fight until the end, and I felt like it was a little bit lucky at the end of the first set, but it was really a big fight to win the first set.

Q. You seemed to be getting very angry with yourself in particular.
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, yeah, because this is the last thing you want to have, to have a slow start on a grass surface because, I mean, everything is so fast, you really have to be ready to start from the first point and be aggressive and take the advantage, especially against a girl like her who moves really well, who plays everything back. You just want to take the opportunity and finish the point quicker, go to the net, be aggressive. And instead of this, I was just standing still and waiting for a mistake that she didn't make.

Q. How did you turn it round, do you think, so well?
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, I think I was feeling like this set is really -- I lost it, I really lost it. But what I need to do is just to get my game on and just start to play aggressively and not to think about the score. That was the way I was playing in the end.

Q. Now, what about -- what are you going to be working on most of all for the next two rounds with your game? What do you need to tighten up, your serve?
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, I think the most important is for me to be focused in the beginning and not to give such a big opportunity to the other player to lead in the score, because this is important, even that I won the first set. It takes a lot of energy by fighting so much. You want to save this energy for the rest of the tournament, so it's really important to be aggressive on your serve and to start well.

Q. What about grass? Do you hate it? Do you like it?
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: No, I've been playing for so many times here in Wimbledon, and I feel it's not that bad (laughing), really. For sure you have to adjust something in your game, you know, to be successful here. But I feel it's a good surface. You know, it's a good challenge.
I think I have to work more to play better here.

Q. Now, chance for revenge for the French Open are you hoping in the next round?
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, we've played, I think, three or four times already this year, and I lost all of them. So for me it's going to be another chance. I know it's going to be tough because she's in great shape. She's won so many matches and she feels really confident for the moment. So it's going to be a tough one, but yeah, I'm looking forward.

Q. Does that match point haunt you that you had?
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: That was a really dramatic match for me. I feel like I was playing really well in the beginning, but I think I finished just a little bit earlier than I have to. But I'm not thinking about this anymore, you know.

Q. But is it a matter of stamina and a mind game, something like that, a Grand Slam? Six or seven matches you have to build yourself up, you have to get better physically and mentally?
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, this is why the Grand Slam tournament is so difficult, because you have to stay feeling healthy two weeks. It's all about sometimes a slow start, but how you can progress during this tournament and how you can improve your game and feel better with your movement and with everything, actually. It's really important.
And sometimes you can see players starting really slow in the first week but playing their best in the end, like Venus did here last year. Yeah, I think it's really important to improve your game every single match that you play.

Q. In your dreams which Grand Slam would you love to win more than any other?
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Oh, French Open.

Q. At Wimbledon with some of the top seeds going out, do some of the players feel that it's opening up on the women's side, that there's a chance for somebody to really make their name at Wimbledon?
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, I think Jelena Jankovic has this feeling because she can be No. 1 if she wins one or two matches, so I think it's all the pressure on her.
But I feel like, yeah, even though Sharapova and Ivanovic lost, we still have so many great players in the draw when it's going to be a really difficult change for everyone.

Q. Is it showing there's more depth on the women's side?
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, I just think, you know, maybe it was not enough time for them to prepare from clay courts to the grass season. But, well, it's -- I mean, it's difficult to say why it's happened, but I think that we still have lots of good players.

Q. And lots of good players from Russia, as well, at this stage, and from other Eastern European countries. Any idea why that is, why everything is going so well for one country?
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, I think for Russia, I mean, the answer is simple, that we have a big competition. We have a big competition between all of us and we're trying to be better, we're trying to improve. It's a really good motivation for every single player. That's how we keep working hard and improving our game.
It's really -- I mean, I think it's difficult to improve yourself when you are the only one in your country and you are the best one. You've got all the wild cards and all the crowd support.
So for us it's like -- it's a fight every week, and you have to prove every single week that you are the best one if you deserve to be in the top.

Q. This setup for development of players and so on must be good, as well, then?
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: What do you mean?

Q. When you're growing up in terms of developing.
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, I think it's really important since you are little to have this competition and to play lots of matches, to play against someone in your age, to feel all this pressure, so in the future you can feel comfortable dealing with this pressure and that you still like the competition, this process, not just, you know, winning against someone against who you have nothing to lose. So I think this is a good feeling.

Q. Do you play too much tennis, and is the calendar still ridiculous? Is the WTA calendar too full? You're an old lady of 26 and you're still playing magnificent tennis --
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: What do you mean still playing? Am I too old?

Q. No, that is the problem, burnout still exists, whatever the WTA tries to do. Venus has just been talking about it, going all over the world.
ELENA DEMENTIEVA: Well, actually they provide a lot of tournaments for us, and it's up to us if we want to play every single week or we have a break and play only the big events. It's up to us. Nobody is pushing us. We can make our own schedule and take as much time as we need to to get ready to play a big event. I think it's actually nice to have so many tournaments and have a chance to pick which ones I want to play.

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