WITH no live tennis on currently due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Draft Central will take a look back at some of the best players of past and present and rank them based on a specific set of guidelines. In our next Top 10 countdown, we look at the Top 10 WTA Players to never have won a Grand Slam title, and it is a Russian whose career ended sooner than many thought after two Grand Slam finals and seven semi-finals in at number seven.

#7 Elena Dementieva (849 matches – 67.8% winning record, 16 career titles, #3 career-high ranking)

The Russian talent who retired just two weeks after her 29th birthday still achieved plenty in her 12-year career. In fact, her career high ranking had come just 18 months prior to her retirement where she reached number three in the world following a semi-final appearance at the Australian Open and then at Wimbledon in the same year. Arguably her best season came in 2004 however, with the then 23-year-old reaching both the French Open and US Open finals.

After a shock first round exit at Melbourne Park to world number 79 Jelena Jankovic, the then world number eight had a shaky start to the season losing to players ranked outside the top 100. Knocking off Venus Williams on her way to the final of the NASDAQ-100 Open in Florida before running into Serena Williams in the final was a promising start to the season, but inconsistency kicked in, not making it past the third round in any clay tournament leading up to Roland Garros.

She somehow managed to step up on the clay at Roland Garros though, stunning the likes of Grand Slam winners, Amelie Mauresmo and Lindsay Davenport in straight sets on her way to the final before losing to world number five, Anastasia Myskina. Her hard court work was much better having bowed out in the first round at Wimbledon, reaching the final at Flushing Meadows after toppling Mauresmo and Jennifer Capriati but falling to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final.

Dementieva lost to Alicia Molik in the first round at the Athens Olympic Games, which was remarkable considering she won silver in Sydney and four years after Athens, claimed gold in Beijing. In that Olympic Games she defeated Serena Williams along with other top talents, Caroline Wozniacki, Vera Zvonareva and Dinara Safina to take out the gold. It was followed by another semi-final in a Grand Slam – at Flushing Meadows. Three more semis would come her way in the majors over the next two years.

Then it was over before you knew it with Dementieva announcing earlier in the year that 2010 would be her last season, and she finished ranked ninth in the world and qualifying for the Sony Ericsson Championships (WTA Finals) where she received a fond farewell at the conclusion of her final match. In total, Dementieva had made two Grand Slam finals and reached seven semi-finals in a career that ended more abruptly than many thought and not forced by injury. She ended her career without a major, but 16 WTA Tour titles, and gold and silver medals.

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Top 10 WTA Players without a Grand Slam title:

#10 Manuela Maleeva (Bulgaria/Switzerland)
#9 Zina Garrison (USA)
#8 Jelena Jankovic (Serbia)
#7 Elena Dementieva (Russia)