Chakvetadze on long road back

For a time it seemed Anna Chakvetadze was destined to become just another in the seemingly never-ending line of young female players who rose to sniff Grand Slam glory before fading quickly back towards oblivion.

When Chakvetadze reached the semi-finals of the US Open in 2007, it seemed the world was at her feet. Soon after she peaked at world number five and appeared set to lead the latest generation to challenge the dominance of the Williams sisters.

For whatever reason, it didn't quite work out that way. Following recent flash-in-the-pan examples such as Nicole Vaidisova, Iva Majoli and one could even persuasively argue Ana Ivanovic, Chakvetadze began to disappear almost as soon as she'd arrived.

Which was why the 23-year-old Chakvetadze greeted her victory in last week's Banka Koper Slovenia Open in Portoroz with such delight. It was her first tour title win in two and half years and lifts her deep back inside the world's top 100.

Chakvetadze said: "Right now I'm far away from world number five. I've struggled so much, but finally I have this win. Last year was really tough for me and I hope this year will be better. I'm not at the same level I used to be, but I'm close."

Chakvetadze, a former Wimbledon junior runner-up, won three tour titles while she was still a teenager, including the 2006 Kremlin Cup when as a non-seed she defeated Elena Dementieva and Nadia Petrova to claim the title.

In 2007 she reached the US Open semis where she was beaten by Svetlana Kuznetsova. She ended the year by reaching the semi-finals of the Sony Ericsson Championships, defeating Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic along the way.

Chakvetadze has never sought publicly to link what happened next to her loss of form. But at Christmas that year, her and her family underwent an horrific ordeal at the hands of masked intruders at their country house outside Moscow.

Chakvetadze and her father Djambuli were tied up by the raiders who made off with goods totalling £150,000. Her father was beaten and Chakvetadze's hands were tied so tight she struggled to regain feeling.

"Life has to go on - you can't just dwell on the past," Chakvetadze said shortly after her ordeal. "I think that psychologically I was OK to play at the Australian Open. I think what happened to me is the kind of thing that can happen to anyone."

Chakvetadze's results suggested otherwise. After a creditable start to 2008 as she claimed her seventh tour title in Paris, she failed to progress beyond the quarter-finals of any tournament until she was a losing finalist in the Pilot Pen event in New Haven.

A sign of how far Chakvetadze had fallen was evident at the start of 2009 when she was only seeded 17th for the Australian Open, but worse was to come. A first round loss to Sabine Lisicki at Wimbledon was enough to dump her out of the world's top 50.

Nothing about 2010 suggested things had changed. Her ranking dropped so low she was forced to qualify for run-of-the-mill events. At Wimbledon, she was embarrassed 6-0 6-1 by Serena Williams in the second round.

But then came Portoroz, and a run of form which hinted at redemption. Perhaps Chakvetadze will buck the trend of the women's game's here-today-gone-tomorrow stars, and fight back to claim a position where her talent once told us she deserved to be.