TENNIS FRENCH OPEN:IN AN interview conducted by an American magazine two years ago Russia's Elena Dementieva was asked about her serve, which has been variously described as weak, ugly, a liability and the worst in history.
Pressed to reflect a little on possessing what is a disfiguring part of an otherwise robust game, Dementieva said: "I think perhaps I need to struggle to play well."
She may be the only existentialist in the game of tennis or maybe it's just a Russian thing to believe that setback is good for the soul. But the number seven seed has had to bear her serve like a cross throughout her career.
Against Anastasia Myskina at the 2004 French Open final, Dementieva won just three games and hit 10 double faults in her collapse. "I can't serve," she said in despair after the match.
At the US Open three months later, she lost in straight sets to the then 19-year-old Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, double faulting in each of the four service games she lost. Before Wimbledon 2005, she spent a week in Holland working with Richard Krajicek, seeking to unlock the secret of the serve.
Once regarded as one of the most fluid servers in the game, and a Wimbledon champion, Krajicek took the view that her problems were psychological.
Yesterday, having won the first 6-4, Dementieva went 5-2 up in the second set against the younger sister of Marat Safina, Dinara.
At that point, she was serving for a place in the semi-final against, Kuznetsova, who had earlier beaten Kaia Kanepi 7-5, 6-2 in their quarter-final.
Rather than claim her place on Centre Court tomorrow, Dementieva proceeded to topple, allowing herself lose the next four games and a match point, and let the match slip to 5-5. Safina served for 6-5 forcing Dementieva to serve just to stay in the set.
She regrouped and did so before offering Safina the first three points of the tiebreak for 3-0, fought back to 3-3, gave away another three for 6-3, and again fought back before losing the tiebreak and the set 7-5.
That overwhelming sequence of play from the match point to losing the second-set tiebreak clearly unravelled Dementieva just as in the US Open and French Open finals of 2004.
Her serve was not a weapon but a way of starting the point.
When Safina bullied her groundstrokes, Dementieva had nothing to offer and her game became a house of cards.
Looking up at her mother and coach, Vera, in the players' box for answers, the 26-year-old Muscovite then entirely buckled, crashing to 6-0 in the third set, handing Safina the match and her first ever Grand Slam semi-final.
"I think it was very hard to play the third set after I had so many chances to finish the match," she said without elaborating.
Up for grabs in the women's side of the draw now is not just the French Open trophy but the chance to fill the world number one position.
If the winner proves to be Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic or Kuznetsova she will assume the place Maria Sharapova vacated when she departed in the last round, again to Safina and again after earning a 5-2 lead and a match point against the younger Russian, who is fast honing a reputation as the comeback kid.
Safina's view is that her combative spirit was responsible for the unlikely demise of both Sharapova and Dementieva.
She could not be faulted in that belief and yesterday was so riled at missing a forehand in the second set that her swipe at the geraniums at the side of the court had one linesman picking red petals out of his ear for the rest of the game.
"I just had to play soft to her and wait really for an opportunity that I could punish her and that's how I started to play at 5-2," said Safina.
"It's not my game to play like this but sometimes that's how it goes to win a match."
The women's semi-final line-up is 13th seed Safina against the fourth seed, Kuznetsova, and on the other side the 20-year-old Ivanovic faces her compatriot Jankovic, the third seed, ensuring a Russian plays a Serb in Saturday's final.
