No Nervous Breakdown for Her

By Lisa Dillman

Aug. 14, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

This is for all those out there with shaky serves and a nagging inability to close out a tennis match.

You might say Elena Dementieva is almost one of those people -- her nervous struggles with the serve are often the same struggles of fans. Which is why her performance at the Home Depot Center at Carson on Sunday was especially gratifying for the Russian, as she overcame her nerves, her serve and, more important, Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, a woman having a breakthrough tournament.

The third-seeded Dementieva nearly lost a 5-0 third-set lead and gripped hard as the lead shriveled to 5-4.

But she finally left No. 16 Jankovic behind for good in the final with an emphatic forehand winner on her third match point to take the JPMorgan Chase Open title, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

A giddy Dementieva jumped in celebration after the entertaining 2-hour 23-minute final, thrilling her brother and interim coach Vsevolod and her boyfriend, Maxim Afinogenov of the Buffalo Sabres, who were among the 6,719 in attendance, and her weary mother, Vera, back home in Moscow awaiting a result.

“It’s a very great feeling,” Dementieva said. “It’s great to be champion for one week. So many great players are playing this week, and I’m the best one. I mean, wow! This is an amazing feeling. That’s why I’m working so hard, to feel this moment and hope to keep this moment. I hope this momentum will go forever.”

Losing the tag of best player without a Grand Slam title is difficult work, but the groundwork is laid in these types of tournaments. For instance, Kim Clijsters won at Carson last year and went on to take her first Grand Slam event a few weeks later, at the U.S. Open.

With Clijsters breaking through in 2005, and Amelie Mauresmo twice this year, the focus shifts to the 24-year-old Dementieva, who lost in two Slam finals, both in 2004. Now she has landed in the select group of women with momentum heading into New York, joining Clijsters and Maria Sharapova, who won in Palo Alto and Carlsbad, respectively.

Dementieva was so pleased that the smile hardly left her face during the post-match news conference, even when she was answering the same old questions about her serve -- six double faults to Jankovic’s five -- and the Grand Slam drought.

“I feel like it’s just starting for me,” said Dementieva, who won her second title of 2006 and sixth in her career. “I feel I’m just getting to my best game, two finals. I just need one more step. I feel young enough and I can make it in the future.”

The crowd caught a glimpse of another potential future star in the 21-year-old Jankovic. She is expected to move to No. 21 in the world today and has recorded victories over sisters Venus and Serena Williams this summer, the latter coming Saturday night in the semifinals.

Jankovic is unusual on the tour in that she attends a university in her native Belgrade.

“I’m not an ordinary tennis player who most of the time I think never ever have seen a classroom,” she said. “They don’t know how it looks like. They don’t know what the desks look like.... Tennis career is really short and you don’t know what will happen tomorrow, so I need to think about my future.”

On Sunday she overcame a sluggish start and made it a surprisingly competitive third set after needing treatment for heat illness from the trainer when trailing, 0-3.

“I didn’t give up,” said Jankovic, who felt tired and dizzy. “I was still thinking I could do it. I know I can break her all the time. I just have to hold my serve, which I had problems doing because I was really tired. I almost did it. I almost came back to 5-5. She can run all day. I think she can play five sets and not get tired.”

Then there was the matter of the serve. The tighter Dementieva got, the slower the serve became, and she frequently side-armed it in during the third set. It has thrown off many others before Jankovic.

“You don’t know what’s coming up, a slow serve or a fast serve,” Jankovic said, smiling. “Sometimes she changes. Sometimes for the second serve, she hits like a first. Normally with the players, they hit a big serve and a little kick serve, and she hits all kinds.”

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The champions

Champions from the WTA Los Angeles tournament since 1985 (note -- before 2004, the event was played for 21 years at Manhattan Beach Country Club):

1985...Claudia Kohde-Kilsch

1986...Martina Navratilova

1987...Steffi Graff

1988...Chris Evert

1989...Martina Navratilova

1990...Monica Seles

1991...Monica Seles

1992...Martina Navratilova

1993...Martina Navratilova