Determined Dementieva will try to reassert her presence at BNP Paribas Open

Indian Wells 2009

When Elena Dementieva walked into the media room at the BNP Paribas Open on Wednesday, only a handful of reporters gathered around her.

Everyone else was surrounding defending champion Ana Ivanovic.

After missing the tournament for the past two years, Dementieva will try to reassert her presence at Indian Wells and continue the best start to her 11-year career.

“It's nice to come back and be in this beautiful place,” said the 27-year-old Russian, seeded third this year.

Injuries have prevented Dementieva from playing for the past two seasons, but she has had success in the desert, reaching the semifinals in 2000 and 2005 and losing to Maria Sharapova in the 2006 final.

Although Dementieva advanced to the finals of the U.S. Open and the French Open in 2004, her ascendant moments have occurred at the Summer Olympics.

After winning the silver medal in Sydney in 2000, Dementieva beat Serena Williams, Vera Zvonareva and Dinara Safina to claim the gold in Beijing last summer.

“It was awesome,” Dementieva said. “I was very proud to represent my country.”

On her way to capturing the gold, Dementieva continued her recent success against Williams, coming back from a set down in the Olympic quarterfinals. She relishes the challenge of competing against Serena and her sister Venus, arguably the game's best players.

“When I go to play against them, I know that I have to play my best,” Dementieva said. “I kind of like to play against them.”

In 2009, the sisters have been among a handful of players that have been able to handle Dementieva, who is enjoying the best start of her career. She won titles in Auckland and Sydney in the run-up to the Australian Open, where she lost to Serena Williams in the semifinals. The only other blemishes on her 21-3 record include defeats to Venus Williams in the quarterfinals at Dubai and Amelie Mauresmo in an indoor final in Paris.

Dementieva credits a change of climate for the improvement. She trained in Florida during the offseason instead of practicing indoors in Moscow.

“For me that was the most difficult part of the schedule,” Dementieva said, “coming from Moscow to Australia, from the winter to the summer.