Groundstroke

But each time Dementieva underlined why she holds such a lofty world standing by answering the challenge with those unerring groundstrokes, particularly the forehand, to hit back after dropping her serve.

In a desperately tight opening set, the pace and accuracy of the Serbian's groundstrokes began to draw errors from the usually faultless Nadal and earned him the first break point of the day at 5-4.