[citation needed] Dementieva was born in Moscow to Viatcheslav, an electrical engineer, and Vera, a teacher—both recreational tennis players.

In 2002, Dementieva and her partner Janette Husárová reached the final of the US Open and won the year-ending WTA Tour Championships.

At the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, she won her first WTA Tour title, defeating Amanda Coetzer, world No.

In addition, she reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon doubles with compatriot Lina Krasnoroutskaya, beating the Venus and Serena Williams team along the way.

In May at the French Open, Dementieva reached her first Grand Slam final, defeating former top ranked Lindsay Davenport in the fourth round, Amélie Mauresmo in the quarterfinals and Paola Suárez in the semifinals, all in straight sets.

[10] Later that year at the US Open, after first round losses at Wimbledon to Sandra Kleinová and the Summer Olympics to eventual bronze-medalist Alicia Molik, Dementieva reached her second Grand Slam final, defeating Mauresmo and Jennifer Capriati en route, both in third set tie-breaks.

Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Dementieva in straight sets in the final, becoming the third consecutive Russian Grand Slam winner.

Following the US Open, Dementieva won her first title in Hasselt and reached the Kremlin Cup final for the second time, losing to Myskina.

All three points came from Dementieva, as she avenged her loss to Pierce at the US Open, beat Mauresmo, and then won the deciding doubles match with partner Dinara Safina.

At the WTA Tour Championships, Dementieva lost all three round robin matches against Mauresmo, Pierce, and Kim Clijsters with the same score each time: 2–6, 3–6.

After losing to Kim Clijsters in an exhibition in Hong Kong, she lost in the first round of the Australian Open to Julia Schruff.

In the final of the Tier I Kremlin Cup in Moscow, Dementieva, being unseeded, defeated Serena Williams for the first time in her career.

Dementieva then travelled to Paris for the Tier II Open Gaz de France indoor tournament.

Dementieva then won the Tier II, $1.5 million Dubai Tennis Championships, defeating second-seeded compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final.

At the Tier I Family Circle Cup in Charleston, Dementieva lost in the semifinals to compatriot Vera Zvonareva dropping her ranking to world No.

Dementieva was the seventh-seeded player at the Tier I German Open in Berlin but reached the final, where she lost to 13th-seeded Dinara Safina.

At the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Dementieva was seeded third and qualified for the year-ending WTA Championships with a second-round victory against Alizé Cornet.

After Serena Williams withdrew from the tournament, Dementieva played Nadia Petrova and defeated her to reach the knock-out stage.

[11] The following week at the Sydney International, Dementieva defeated Agnieszka Radwańska in the quarterfinals and upset top-seeded Serena Williams in the semifinals in two sets.

[13] Dementieva began the spring clay-court season at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, a Premier event.

[14] At the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, another Premier event, she reached her second consecutive semifinal where she lost to the eventual champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

At the Stanford Classic, she advanced to the semifinal defeating Daniela Hantuchová en route, but then was crushed by Venus Williams, 6–0, 6–1.

At the year-ending WTA Championships, Dementieva won her first round-robin match in the Maroon group against Venus after trailing 3–6, 1–3 in the second set.

The highlights of her career this year included winning Auckland, Sydney and Toronto and reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

She lost her opening match in the round-robin stage to Sabine Lisicki before defeating Yaroslava Shvedova and Laura Robson.

However, Russia failed to make the final as they finished third in Group B. Dementieva's first title of the year came at Sydney, where she was also the defending champion.

At the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, where Dementieva was the sixth seed, she lost in the third round to a resurgent Ana Ivanovic for the first time.

She booked her place in the semi-finals of the tournament, where she faced Italian 17th seed Francesca Schiavone, after comeback from a set down to win over Nadia Petrova in the quarterfinals.

She retired after Schiavone won the first set in a tie break with a torn left calf muscle which was sustained in the second round, and subsequently withdrew from Eastbourne and Wimbledon.

[21] Her record includes singles victories over Venus Williams, Mary Pierce, Amélie Mauresmo and Kim Clijsters.