Elena Dementieva

Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva bornOctober 1981 is a retired Russian tennis player. Dementieva won the singles gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, having previously won the silver medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. She wonWTA singles titles, reached the finals of the 2004 French Open and 2004 US Open and reached seven other Grand Slam semi finals. Dementieva was also part of the Russian team that won the 2005 Fed Cup, won the 2002 WTA Championship doubles with Janette Husrov and was the runnerup in two US Open doubles finals in 2002 with Husrov and in 2005 with Flavia Pennetta. Dementieva achieved a careerhigh ranking of World No. 3, which was accomplished onApril 2009. She announced her retirement onOctober 2010, after her final match at the 2010 WTA Tour Championships. Dementieva ended her career ranked World No.and between 2003 and 2010 she only ended one year, in 2007, outside the top 10.

Dementieva was born in Moscow to Viatcheslav, an electrical engineer, and Vera, a teacherboth recreational tennis players. She was rejected by Dynamo Sports Club and the Central Red Army Tennis Club at the age of 7, before enrolling at Spartak Tennis Club, where she was coached foryears by Rauza Islanova, the mother of Marat Safin and Dinara Safina. She then moved to the Central Red Army Club with Sergei Pashkov, when she was 11. She was later coached by her mother Vera and her older brother Vsevolod. She has homes in Monaco, Moscow and Boca Raton, Florida. Dementieva enjoys snowboarding, reading, baseball and traveling. OnJuly 2011, Dementieva married hockey player Maxim Afinogenov in Moscow. The couple welcomed their first child, Veronika, in April 2014.

Source: Wikipedia