Golden chance for Dementieva at French Open

Opportunity knocks again for Elena Dementieva at the French Open and she hopes that her familiarity with her favourite city Paris can provide her with the inspiration to at last grab her chance.

Opportunity knocks again for Elena Dementieva at the French Open and she hopes that her familiarity with her favourite city Paris can provide her with the inspiration to at last grab her chance.

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The tall, blonde Russian defeated compatriot Nadia Petrova in three sets to reach what will be her ninth appearance in a Grand Slam semi-final at the age of 28.

She even twice made it to finals, in 2004 in Paris and at the US Open. On both occasions she lost to Russians, Anastasia Myskina in Paris and Svetlana Kuznetsova a few months later in New York.

Dementieva admits that not winning a Grand Slam title is getting hard to take.

"Well, for sure it's on my mind," she said. "I mean, I was in the final a couple times in the semi-final and never won the Grand Slam.