Next stop: Rome
16th May 2006
After a dismal defeat to former world number one Martina Hingis, Elena Dementieva must be keen on regrouping and getting her clay court season really moving as the Internazionali D’Italia from Rome begins on Monday.
In 2005, Dementieva was sent packing in the second round, after getting a first-round bye, to Argentine Gisela Dulko.
Also heading to the Foro Italico, are current world number two Kim Clijsters, world number threeNadia Petrova, Martina Hingis, 2004 French Open champion Anastasia Myskina, Wimbledon title holder Venus Williams and 2004 US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.
This year Elena Dementieva is seed number five; therefore, she receives a first-round bye. As second-round action gets underway, Elena will play either clay-court specialist Lourdes Dominguez Lino or Chinese Shuai Peng. Dementieva has never met Dominguez Lino at the WTA level, but she has met Peng once before, and she surely doesn’t have good memories of it. That first meeting came in 2005, in San Diego, and she lost 5:7, 4:6. Peng would go on to claim another surprising win versus Kim Clijsters in the following round.
For the third round, the Russian is likely to meet either Marta Domachowska or German’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld, seeded eleventh. Should she reach the quarterfinals, she would probably get another showdown against Kim Clijsters. The two have faced each other three times this year already, with the Belgian claiming two out of those three meetings.
In the semifinals, the main contenders will probably feature Anastasia Myskina and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
In the final the biggest threatmay come from in-form Nadia Petrova. Patty Schnyder, as well as Venus Williams and Martina Hingis, will also be players to watch.
The Internazionali d’Italia offers a total of $1,340,000, with the winner claiming $196,900 and 300 points, while the runner-up will pocket $100,000 and 210 points.
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