It is time for Dementieva to win a huge match.

[BjornBorg]

Like Jankovic, Dementieva has a habit of melting under pressure. She has not been able to win a major, despite being one of the best players for the last six or so years.

She often falls apart on her mechanically unsound serve. She's had chances to win majors and now she can win Gold and validate her career. She's a better player than Safina and needs to win this match to finally show she has the mental fortitude to be a great champion. She has not been able to do that so far, despite having an excellent career. Like Jankovic, it's between the ears with her.

 

[Lionheart392]

Hopefully Dementieva's win over Serena will have given her a huge confidence boost. Her nerves have come up during the tournament, she dominated the 3rd set and got a 5-0 lead, before getting tight and losing the next 3 games. She did manage to keep her cool after that and win the match, so hopefully she proved to herself that she's capable of getting gold. Safina being on the roll she is will probably take advantage of any Dementieva meltdown, so she just cannot allow that to happen tomorrow. Of course, Safina's nerves have also affected her over the past few days, making her serve very inconsistent. I think both women's serve could let them down tomorrow if they let nerves take over. So the question for me is, which will be able to keep their cool and win the match?

 

[AAAA]

Because she's gorgeous I hope she beats Safina in the final. However Safina has several times this year comback from huge deficits to win matches, whilst Dementieva has lost too many matches from commanding leads. Maybe the different mental dynamics generated by the Olympics will change things for Dementieva.