Top 20 Stars Reach New Heights in 2008

Jelena Jankovic wasn't the only twenty-something in the Top 20 to finish 2008 with a career-high ranking. Five of her counterparts applied newfound maturity, technical improvements, good health and fitness and a dash of luck to post their best seasons. Whether they are aptly described as born-again players or late bloomers, these turnaround queens serve as a reminder that a tennis career can assume a fresh trajectory even after the term 'teen phenom' is out of date.
 
Dinara Safina: Up from No.15 to No.3 in 2008
A pro since 2000 and with three Top 20 finishes under her belt before 2008, Safina had seemed in danger of remaining a somewhat mercurial supporting act. So, while her talent was never in question, the 22-year-old Russian's mid-career transmogrification into a lean, mean, focused fighting machine caught just about everybody by surprise. Having started the season with an 11-10 record the famous turning point came in May, when Safina shocked Justine Henin in the third round at Berlin and went on to claim her first Tier I title. In that context a letdown at Roland Garros would have been understandable, but it didn't happen, as 'Marat's little sister' marched all the way to her first Grand Slam final. 
Although her grasscourt results weren't of the same caliber, Safina wasn't fazed. Tournament wins at Los Angeles and a Montréal secured her the Olympus US Open Series, and after detouring to the Beijing Olympics, where she won the silver medal, she collected a fourth title at Tokyo. After that her results cooled ever so slightly, and her failure to win a match in the round robin at the Sony Ericsson Championships was especially disappointing, but she nonetheless went 44-7 from Berlin onwards and at one point was ranked as high as No.2. With little in the way of points to defend in Australia next month, Safina is well placed to emulate her former world No.1 brother in 2009.
 
Elena Dementieva: No.11 to No.4
Given she won silver at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and has ranked in the Top 20 every year since then, 27-year-old Dementieva can hardly be described as a late bloomer. But having finished in the Top 10 four years in a row the Russian dipped into the teens after a rib stress fracture in 2007. Considering her best results had come in 2004, when she reached the finals of both Roland Garros and the US Open and finished the year at No.6, it was perhaps fair to assume her best days were past.
Armed with an improving serve, Dementieva proved her doubters wrong in 2008. Although she didn't quite match those earlier Grand Slam feats, she did win the title at Dubai before going on to make her first Wimbledon semifinal, and also reached the last four at Flushing Meadows. Of course, the result that really mattered was her gold medal at the Olympics, a career-defining moment that she would describe as the happiest day of her life. Later in the year, Dementieva struck a blow for experience over youth when she held off fast-rising teen Caroline Wozniacki to win at Luxembourg, then made the semis at the season-ending championships for the first time in eight attempts. Indeed, at Doha she even admitted that for the first time in her career, she was sorry the season was over.
 
 
Vera Zvonareva: No.23 to No.7
Whereas Safina's ascent to the elite in 2008 saw her break free of a frustrating plateau, Zvonareva's rise falls into the category of renaissance. Now 24, the Muscovite first breached the Top 10 in 2004, the year she won her first Tour title and reached the last 16 at three of the four Grand Slams. But injury saw her ranking sink to No.42 by the end of 2005, and the next two years were only marginally better as she struggled to regain confidence and form.
The signs of revival were actually apparent in the autumn of 2007, and Zvonareva started 2008 on a high by reaching the final at Hobart. Although she was forced to withdraw from that match due to an ankle injury sustained in practice, tournament wins were to come in Prague and Guangzhou. Admittedly she was top seed at both events, but her strategy of playing lower-level events to build confidence through match play paid off, for she also reached finals at bigger events such as Doha, Charleston, Moscow and Linz - and won bronze at the Beijing Olympics. If she can keep up the momentum that saw her beat Ivanovic, Kuznetsova, Jankovic and Dementieva to reach the final at the Sony Ericsson Championships, Top 5 status is surely within grasp.
 
Flavia Pennetta: No.39 to No.13
In the first part of the season 26-year-old Flavia Pennetta captured the fifth and sixth titles of her career as the top seed at both Viña del Mar and Acapulco - nothing new there - but despite missing the Fed Cup World Group semifinals and Berlin with a left leg injury the Italian upped the ante at Roland Garros with her dazzling upset of Venus Williams in the third round. Indeed, something seemed to click in the Italian's exuberant game on that springtime evening in Paris, for the rest of the season saw her repeatedly match it with the best on the biggest stages.
In July, Pennetta reached the first Tier II final of her career at Los Angeles, falling to Safina, then made her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the US Open. She beat Venus again at Moscow on her way to the quarters, and scored her first win over a reigning world No.1 with defeat of Jelena Jankovic at Zürich. Although Venus was finally able to extract a measure of revenge against her nemesis in the final of that event, it was enough for the Italian to finish in the Top 15 for the first time. She did even better in the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championships, only missing out on a spot as second alternate when Nadia Petrova won the title at Québec City at the last minute. 
 
Katarina Srebotnik: No.27 to No.20
Now 27, Srebotnik's doubles prowess has never been in doubt, and she remains one of its top-ranked exponents at No.4. But in 2008 - a decade after she won both the Wimbledon and US Open junior titles - the athletic Slovene reached new heights in singles, ending the season at No.20, her best result yet after three years in the Top 30.
Ever dangerous, the big shift for Srebotnik this season was the nature of her wins against better-rated opponents. Having beaten a Top 10 player just four times during her entire career, in 2008 she accomplished that feat no fewer than five times, including twice at Grand Slams. Indeed, having reached the last 16 of a major just once previously, at Roland Garros in 2002, Srebotnik upset Serena Williams in Paris and Svetlana Kuznetsova at Flushing Meadows on her way to the fourth round at both toirnaments. She also bested Dementieva, Anna Chakvetadze and Agnieszka Radwanska at regular Tour events, and although she didn't lift a trophy, was runner-up at Strasbourg, a semifinalist three times, and quarterfinalist four times. At Wimbledon she played the sixth longest match in Tour history, at 3hrs 41mins - suggesting there is plenty of steam left in those lanky legs.