KEY POINTS:
As the seeds yesterday lined up before the draw was made for this week's ASB Classic, Elena Dementieva commanded attention.
She's tall (180cm) and, as the world No 4, she's also the highest-ranked player to ever grace the Auckland event.
New Zealand's Marina Erakovic quickly realised her mistake in standing at the head of the queue and scuttled to the other end beside tournament eighth seed, and the much shorter, Carla Suarez Navarro.
Erakovic might have had a great year in 2008, after becoming the first Kiwi in more than a decade to climb into the top 50, but even she couldn't match the achievements of the lanky Russian.
Dementieva comes to Auckland after a stellar year highlighted by three more tour titles and semifinal appearances at both Wimbledon and the US Open. But the thing she looks back on most fondly in her successful career was Olympic success at Beijing, where she beat Serena Williams and fellow Russians Vera Zvonareva and Dinara Safina on the way to gold.
"I always dreamed about winning the Olympic Games," says Dementieva, who also won silver at Sydney in 2000. "That has always been the biggest goal in my career, more than a grand slam title because the Olympic Games is huge in Russia.
"I grew up watching the Olympic Games and dreaming of being there. And everyone knows about the Olympics but people who don't follow tennis don't know about grand slams. To win a grand slam is a big goal as a tennis player but as a Russian there is nothing bigger for me."
She soon found out how much it meant to fellow Russians. Normally a few people say, "well done" and "congratulations" to her after a tournament victory but this time a reception was held in her honour and people said, "thank you so much".
She said: "I was really surprised. It was nice."
It was especially poignant given the fact the 27-year-old was nearly discarded to the tennis scrapheap in the immensely competitive environment in Moscow before it had even begun.
She was told "nyet" (no) by both the Dynamo Sports and Central Red Army Tennis Clubs at the age of seven, having been told she had a flaw in her technique.
"We went to different clubs with my parents but nobody wanted to take me," she takes up. "My mum said, 'OK, we will take one more chance' and took me to the Spartak club.
"My first coach, Marat Safin's mother, said, 'I like this girl'. I think I was very lucky she picked me from a lot of other girls."
Lucky to the tune of 11 career WTA titles, as well as appearances in two grand slam finals (2004 French and US Opens), and US$10.6 million (NZ$18m) in career earnings.
Although a relatively paltry US$37,000 (NZ$63,000) is on offer for the winner of the ASB Classic, Dementieva is taking it seriously, especially with the Australian Open just around the corner.
"I am trying to reach the No 1 position [in the world] and to win a grand slam," she says. "That's the goal this year.
"This is my first time here and I want to play well. I think it's very important to play well and some good matches in the beginning of the year to get some confidence.
"It's never easy to play the first matches of the year. I would like to win... but I don't feel pressure any more. I'm old enough not to feel the pressure."
She can leave that up to her less experienced opponents in Auckland this week who all wanted to stand at the head of the queue.
