Anna Chakvetadze has been through more ups and downs in her life and tennis career than most of us will experience in a lifetime, but she started down the track back to the top of women’s tennis with victory in last week’s Slovenia Open.
The Russian was ranked in the top five in the world as a teenager, but her victory in the final in Portoroz on Sunday, where she beat unseeded Swede Johanna Larsson 6-1 6-2, ended a streak without a title stretching back to early 2008.
Chakvetadze started last week’s tournament outside the world’s top 100, but victories to defy most Tennis odds over Sara Errani, Vera Dushevina and Polona Hercog at least provided her with three boosts to her confidence, so low after more than two years in the wilderness.
She had broken into the tennis world’s conscience back in 2007 when reaching the semi-finals of the US Open before going on to beat Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic on her way to the last-four in the Sony Ericsson Championships.
Although she won again in February of 2008 in Paris, it is possible that the downfall in her game had already started by then after the off-court tribulations the previous December, just when her star was at its brightest.
Chakvetadze and her father Djambuli were tied up by the raiders who made off with goods totalling £150,000 in a raid on their Moscow home just seven days before Christmas, and her wrists were reportedly bound tight enough that she struggled to regain the feeling in them.
That did not stop her winning in Paris, but soon after her form would disintegrate to the point that just two years later she was heading for the scrap-heap, destined to join other young stars who have failed to live up to their early impact.
Dozens of early exits would follow but the glimmer of light finally arrived last week and she can now look forward to the US Open tennis betting odds, where she has performed so well in the past. "I hope this will give me some confidence so that I can play better against the top players. If you play well at a Grand Slam, you kind of start to believe that you can do really well."
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