Hewitt, Dementieva and Davenport - three veterans who mean business

Players Under the Microscope / Scott Ferguson / 08 January 2008 / Leave a Comment

Scott's Spot - Scott Ferguson looks at three so-called "veterans" of the ATP and WTA tours who can get back to winning ways in 2008

2008 has only just begun but three veterans of the tour have returned with a vengeance.

Elena Dementieva dropped out of the year-end top 10 for the first time in five years, and didn't progress to the final eight in any Grand Slam. Probably sick of the ridicule from fans about her super-lame serve, she has worked hard on it over the past few months. Opponents now face a faster, more varied serve which can finally win free points for the 26yo Muscovite. The previous model, a one-dimensional slice which did little more than start a point, often broke down under pressure, to the extent that Elena was better off receiving than serving.

Dementieva's groundstrokes are as good as anyone's in the women's game. The fact she has been able to reach two Grand Slam finals and be ranked in the top five with a schoolgirl serve is a remarkable achievement. Potentially, she can kick on to seriously contest the major tournaments consistently, but the real question is how will the new service action hold up under pressure? In front of her home crowd at the Kremlin Open in October, she defeated Azarenka, Safina and Serena Williams along the way to the title, all heavy-hitters ruthlessly looking to punish weak second serves. One tournament however, especially on home soil, is not a big enough sample to measure the progress the revisions to her service action have made.

Interestingly, since 2001, she has only failed in the first round of a Grand Slam event on five occasions, with three of those being in Melbourne. Perhaps it's the heat, but she has yet to reach the last eight at the Australian Open. If you are trading on a Dementieva match, keep in mind that if the WTA kept break point statistics like the ATP, I'd expect to see Dementieva near the top. She has been able to compensate for a weak serve for many years, so don't despair if her serve is broken - her strength has always been at the other end of the court.

Lleyton Hewitt's ranking has been on a gradual slide for a while now. Since his glory days in 2001-2, conveniently between the Sampras and Federer eras, his title wins have slowed down to a slow drip. Four in 2000, six in 2001, five in 2002, followed by 2, 4, 1, 1, 1 respectively up until the end of 2007. His last Grand Slam final was the Aus Open of 2005 and even his run of seven consecutive QF appearances or better at Flushing Meadow dried up last year. With no berths in the final eight of a Grand Slam last year, he has sought out the master, Australian legend Tony Roche, to restore some pride back into his game.

Now ranked 21, Hewitt now sits outside the protected 16 of a Grand Slam - he could now be meeting the likes of Federer or Nadal in the third round which makes the climb back up the ranking pole even harder. The signs were looking good for Hewitt back in his hometown of Adelaide where the ATP Tour was making its final bow. Straight-sets wins over Sela and Acasuso showed a determined Hewitt, working his opponent from corner-to-corner, a trademark of his heyday where no particular shot won him matches, just the endless stamina and ability to grind a player down. He even laughed at fellow tour players complaining about the heat -'we're athletes - if you can't handle three sets in this, perhaps it's time to get a new job.' But faced with a high-powered assault from Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who to be honest, doesn't have that many dimensions to his game, Hewitt crumbled in straight sets.

Roche is too good a mentor for Hewitt not to improve under his tutelage, but whether Rusty is able to return to the glory days is another story. Hewitt's record in Melbourne is poor for a player in his home country on his favourite surface. In eleven attempts, just once has he got past the fourth round, in 2005 when he reached the final against Marat Safin. 18-11 is mediocre, it's barely any better than Fabrice Santoro's slate of 18-14 and he has probably never been seeded.

Lindsay Davenport is an amazing player. After taking a year off for the birth of her first child, she has stormed back, without a protected ranking, claiming three titles and a 18-1 record in her first three events. Sure, these events have only been Bali, Beijing, Quebec City and Auckland, but the manner of her destruction has told the story. In her wake have been players such as Jankovic (1-1 since her comeback, the only player to have beaten her), Dementieva, Hantuchova, Zvonareva and Paszek. The big girl is back, make no bones about it.

Australia has always been a happy hunting ground for Davenport - in nine visits to Melbourne, she has always made it to at least the fourth round, with three exits in the semis, a runner-up trophy in 2005 (to Serena Williams) and the title in 2000. Going in unseeded with make the top seeds worry just a little. Serena managed to blast her way through from the unheralded depths last year, don't rule out the new mother from California from being able to do something similar.