It’s easy to love Elena Dementieva. You have to appreciate someone who does so well with a wounded serve. Her arm doesn’t extend all the way up and the ball barely clears the net even when the serve is good. We’ve been compiling the member list of the fight club here lately and she’s a bona fide fighter. It’s often an adventure but she’s seldom out of a match.

Dementieva compensates for her poor serve with very good returns and plays from the baseline hitting missiles for ground strokes. Ana Ivanovic, her opponent in the semifinals here at Indian Wells, is a big server and likes to attack the net. You don’t know how happy it makes me to be able to write that about a young player on the WTA tour. Ivanovic, a Serbian, is 18 years old.

This is typical Dementieva. She had a double fault in every game but one in the first set and she lost her serve in that game.

Dementieva was down 4-1 in the first set when I was thinking that it was time for her to make a move. She started with a backhand winner to get a break point. Ivanovic recovered with two winners of her own then ran into the net to pick up a Dementieva volley and tried to hit a passing shot. Dementieva quickly read it and smacked a swinging volley cross court. She broke Ivanovic and though she went onto to lose the set, 6-2, Dementieva was starting to take over in her own peculiar up and down way.

This is typical Dementieva. She had a double fault in every game but one in the first set and she lost her serve in that game. She also lost the first game in the second set, on a double fault of course.

You can tell who’s controlling the ground game by looking at who redirects the ball. The next game was already on its fourth deuce when Ivanovic redirected a forehand down the line after an exchange of cross court shots. It gave her a game point and if she’d won the game, she would have been in command with a 2-0 lead. But Dementieva hit a hard backhand down the line and put away Ivanovic’s weak response.

From then on, Dementieva started to pound the ball and Ivanovic’s 1st serve percentage went underground. A Serbian reporter sitting next to me was mumbling to himself. This being Dementieva, though, it wasn’t over yet. Serving for the set at 5-3, Dementieva hit two very hard shots but Ivanovic got them both back. Dementieva then hit a drop volley but Ivanovic got to that too and passed her. After two consecutive double faults, they were back on serve.

But it was Dementieva who was redirecting balls now and Ivanovic was going for too much. She’s young, she’ll learn. Dementieva broke Ivanovic to win the second set and won the third set going away to get into the finals with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win.

For three days I was accidentally sitting in the players’ side of the cafeteria instead of the media area. Either players were too nice to tell me or I was too insignificant to worry about. Andy Roddick’s match was on television one of the days and it was kind of fun watching Roddick’s fellow players point out that he was so far behind the baseline that he was off camera. Anyway, the players call Ivan Ljubicic “Luby” and I’m sorry for the false advertising but Luby’s match was anything but an adventure.

Unfortunately for Luby, the match took place in the desert sun – after the match he said it was not good conditions for his serve – and Federer played what he said was his best game of the year. Against Richard Gasquet, it was hard to gauge Federer’s readiness because Gasquet has struggled this year, but Ljubicic is 20-2 so far and he managed to get exactly one break point in what was a routine, 6-2, 6-3, win for Federer.

You have to marvel at Federer’s attitude. Peter Bodo asked him what impact the final in Dubai had on him. Federer lost to Rafael Nadal for the third time in four matches at the Dubai Duty Free tournament two weeks ago. Of course, Bodo is asking him because a Federer-Nadal final is looking more like a reality.

I felt bad for him after the Dubai loss. Here he was cruising along with seven slam wins in three years and here was Nadal, a legitimate threat to his kingdom. But Federer said, “I was happy with the way I played,” and expressed surprise that people were so interested in the match. “For me,” he said, “it was gone the next day.”

I don’t know that I believe that but I hope Nadal’s sprained ankle is sufficiently healed so we can hear what Federer has to say after his next match with Nadal.

People are still dressing more warmly than usual in the desert this week at Indian Wells, but at least the tennis has been hot. Real hot, in fact, and we might even say that this tournament – spread out nearly over two weeks – is practically another American Grand Slam event to go along with the Open in September. Nearly all the “big” men are here at this tournament, and a lot of the top women as well. They don’t play best of five sets, but the finalists will, so it is very like a slam in that respect.

And to think there was some question about whether Indian Wells would continue in future years as a tournament. Rumors were floating that it might be moved to Shanghai, or another port of call where the prize money might be more sustainable. Billie Jean King and Pete Sampras reportedly put up their own money to keep the tournament here in the desert.

Which is good news, because this has been a great tournament so far, even better than the Australian Open. By the time the ESPN network started its broadcasts during the second week, we saw on the first “real” day of the tournament a rather spectacular array of lineups: Andy Murray had the misfortune to meet Nikolay Davydenko, and Lleyton Hewitt struggled a bit with a re-emerged Rainer Schuettler, who plays a style very similar to Hewitt’s.

But the classic opening day match was Carlos Moya going down to Marat Safin, 6-7(4),6-3,6-4. As the score would indicate, this was the bravura match of the early rounds, extremely well played . But did we see it on ESPN? No, even though it was promised on the ATP schedule for Sunday afternoon. But Messrs. Moya and Safin never emerged, and so one of the early gems went down the tubes. Sadly, the Tennis Channel has not infiltrated my neighborhood yet. And because it’s a match with a Spaniard and a Russian, do our networks care even if they did show tennis on that Sunday?

The Pleasant Surprises:

Paradorn Srichaphan is having a great tournament, after some rather lackluster months, and dare we say years, slipping further into the doldrums. He has climbed his way over an interesting assortment of guys: Robby Ginepri in the first round, Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second. Today he upset David Nalbandian, the highest seed at number 4 to exit in the tournament so far, until number 3 Andy Roddick followed him out a short while later. Nalbandian had not played since Australia. While Paradorn looked ultra buff in his blue body shirt and black shorts, Nalbandian looked out of shape. I have criticized him for not keeping his conditioning up more. But you could not help but make comparisons out there today. Paradorn faces a tough test in the quarters, against Marat Safin most likely.

The other pleasant surprise, and I find it odd to confess to this guilty pleasure almost, is seeing Martina Hingis blithely go about her new business of humbling the great and powerful. Yesterday it was Lindsay Davenport who succumbed. Not because Hingis has put enough power behind her shots to score outright winners, but that she simply stayed more consistent longer in the match than did Lindsay. Davenport is such a well-oiled machine when she plays well that we forget that it sometimes takes her a while to get into that rhythm. Like those howitzer-type things they had circa WW1, where you would have to fire a few first, then adjust the sights, until you got the range you wanted. Sometimes I feel that about Lindsay’s game. She zeroed in during the second set, but maybe the bulging disk in her spine is affecting her already, despite her denials otherwise. Hingis re-asserted herself in the long opening game of the third set, and after Hingis finally held serve, the message got through to Davenport: she wasn’t going to win on this day. Hingis moved through it without too much trouble from that point on, winning the last set in a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 effort.

I can remember the time when Martina Hingis really bugged me, and I yearned to see her lose. Suddenly I am very happy to see her back. Maybe this is the natural evolution of our feelings about being in the Era of Power in the game of tennis. Even the midgets can hit the ball a ton now, thanks to racket technology. So to see Hingis again, still a midget herself in spite of her best efforts to the contrary, is like seeing a style of tennis playing that’s in danger of becoming extinct. Because Hingis is not about power. She used to be all about being steady, but now she’s branching out, she’s placing her shots better and with more force behind them. You have an ultimate “control” type of player trying to evolve a more “power” style, wherein you give up some of your control. So far, it’s been an interesting experiment to watch, and to feel happy to see some success flowing her way.

Her countryman Mr. Federer often seems cut from the same cloth, another smooth and well-oiled machine, with some power too but more about placement, control and keeping steady. Maybe because of this effortlessness perhaps it’s hard to analyze them sometimes, it is so subtle. So many things work for them. They are a good challenge for those who think they know tennis.

The Tentatives:

Sadly, there are more of these than the Pleasant Surprises. Andy Roddick’s match concluded in yet another losing fashion, this time to Russian new kid, Igor Andreev. Igor does not look all that physically imposing, but those legs are fantastically lean and sculpted, and a quick wipe of his shirt to his face revealed abs we’d probably all kill our mothers for. He packs enough power to unload on one of the nicer looking forehands current in the men’s game. He can whip the ball in a low swipe and drive it hard and dipping, in an acute angle just over the net. A nasty inside-out forehand that basically put Roddick’s to shame today. The score was 6-4, 6-7, 6-1.

Roddick lost his focus after the second set tie-break. He should have started the third fired up and ready to seize the momentum. But instead he seemed to lose his edge again, and his way, the advantage shifted to his opponent and his opponent proved a far better grinder today than did Roddick.

Can Roddick keep his mental alertness over time on a court? I keep wondering that, and I keep answering myself in waffling tones. Sometimes I sense his energy is so out there everywhere at once that he may have trouble summoning it up at crucial points in a match. When he really needs it. It’s too diffuse to control and focus upon something.

Andre Agassi lost as well in an early round, by his standards, to Tommy Haas, one of the top players this year. The sad thing here was no one was really surprised, when you think about it. Their rankings aren’t that close really, but by year’s end Haas will probably be in the Top Ten, Andre will have moved out of it.

I don’t know if we are going to see Lindsay and Andre after this year is over. Somehow their similar predicaments seem illuminated now in this bright desert light. If it were anything but their backs, they could fudge it a bit longer maybe. But it’s the back, and that makes life difficult.

As for the women’s final, it is shaping up to be either Sharapova or Hingis to face Henin-Hardenne. Elena Dementieva is not going to be a problem for JHH.

I’m afraid it’s most likely going to be another final between those guys, Federer, Nadal. In fact, I propose we just caught to the chase, shall we? and just call them him, Roger Nadal. We’ll just say, “It’s another Roger Nadal Final.” After all, they probably will become one and the same person, given enough time. We may as well get used to it.

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As I was watching Lindsay Davenport play Martina Hingis in their fourth round match at Indian Wells today, I couldn’t help but think about the state of American women in the game at the moment. Maybe it was watching Andre Agassi lunging at Tommy Haas’ serve last night but the thought crossed my mind that Davenport might not be around all that much longer.

Hingis has won 19 out of 25 matches since returning from a three year layoff but she was not the story during this match even though she won it, 6-3,1-6, 6-2.

The match rested on Davenport’s racket but Davenport couldn’t keep the ball in play. Again and again she set up a winner and hit the ball wide or long. It wasn’t like Agassi last night, she was getting to the ball, but she wasn’t putting it in the court. She had twenty-one errors in the first set alone.

Everybody is always trying to get rid of you long before you’re ready to go. Davenport could be having a bad day. She played well this year in the two events she entered reaching the quarters at the Australian Open and the semis in Dubai.

And, no, she’s not ready to go just yet but in the post-game interview she revealed that she was diagnosed with a bulging disc last week. She wants to play in Miami, the next tour event, but then she plans to take four to six weeks off. That puts her smack dab in the middle of the clay court run-up to the French Open. She should consider following Agassi by skipping the entire clay court season. That might be too much of a concession for Davenport’s pride but surely playing short points on hard court and grass is better rehabilitation for a bulging disc than hours running around on red clay.

Meanwhile, back to those American women. The men’s side is not great but it’s o.k. Roddick should be around for a while to come, James Blake is at number 14, we hope that Ginepri rights himself and we also hope that Donald Young wins a match on the tour some time soon. The women’s side? Well, there’s part-time Venus Williams at number 10 then we’re down to Amy Frazier, who is 35 years old, at number 47. Laura Granville and Ashley Harkleroad at 52 and 78 are both in their twenties but they’ve been ranked higher in the past than they are now. Harkleroad lost to Davenport 6-0, 6-0 in the second round here and Granville lost to Davenport 6-4, 6-0 in the third. That leaves us with Serena Williams at 58 and Lisa Raymond at 68. Serena is a television star and Raymond is thirty-two years old.

That is a bleak picture.

They’ve been rotating the DVD, Lleyton Hewitt – The Other Side, recently on The Tennis Channel. From my viewing, Hewitt is who he is regardless of how you portray him. He’s a brash, “f.u. mate, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do” kind of guy who scratched and clawed his way to the Australian Final last year against Marat Safin. What’s wrong with that? On the DVD, you see Hewitt warmly congratulating Safin after Safin beat him. Safin is apologetic and humble, he looks puzzled at himself.

That’s because, much of the time, Safin is his own unquiet witness. He can’t control his temper and seems bemused at his own actions. It’s like he’s having an out of body experience. You expect to tune in to ESPN and see an extra little body with wild hair looking down at Safin while throwing its hands up in the air and repeatedly crying, “What is he doing?”

You expect to tune in to ESPN and see an extra little body with wild hair looking down at Safin while throwing its hands up in the air and repeatedly crying, “What is he doing?”

Safin is back on the tour after a seven month layoff due to a knee injury and his third round opponent here at Indian Wells is his fellow Russian, Nikolay Davydenko. Davydenko is the anti-Marat in a number of ways. Safin is solidly build with wild hair, it’s tied into a Samurai topknot at the moment, who is likely to explode at any moment; Davydenko is slight and balding and seldom shows much emotion except to stare at a linesperson and perhaps brood a bit when he’s unhappy with a call. Safin has a big game, you hear a huge “thud” when he hits the ball, and his consistency is, well, inconsistent; Davydenko is a steady hitter and excellent defensive player who doesn’t give points away. Safin has a big serve that can get him out of trouble when necessary; Davydenko does not.

It doesn’t help Davydenko that most Russians still consider Safin their top player despite the fact that Davydenko is ranked number five in the world. Poor guy, he doesn’t even get respect from me. I’m interested in Safin here, not him.

Davydenko is not only steady but he’s smart. With Safin serving at 3-3 in the first set, Safin hit three straight errors to give Davydenko two break points. Many players force the issue resulting in errors that let their opponent back into the game. Knowing that his opponent is Safin, Davydenko kept the ball in play until Safin made another error and lost his serve.

After two more errors to start the next game, here it comes. Safin smashes his racket and gets a code violation for racket abuse. Maybe Safin could find a twelve step group for racket abuse. Still, after a double fault and a few loose shots by Davydenko, something he can’t afford, Safin got the break to get back on serve. For a few strokes. On his third straight error in the next game he screamed at himself in Russian. It seemed to bother Davydenko as much as Safin. They exchanged breaks for the last five games of the set to get to the tiebreaker with only one Safin explosion, a ball hit as hard as he could off the backboard behind his opponent expertly missing the ballgirl and linesman. No casualties, no code violation.

Despite his outbursts, Safin thinks that his layoff helped him. “I solved a lot of problems that I had outside of tennis, ” he said after the match. “Actually, it was the right thing. It happened to me at the right time.” If this match is any indication, he’s right. Safin kept the ball in play long enough during the tiebreak to outlast Davydenko and take the first set then he survived a titanic service game at the beginning of the second set in which he faced five break points.

He lost the second set on a break but that may have come with some bad luck. Facing two break points at 1-2, he thought his serve was incorrectly called out. No outburst, he just walked up to the net and pleaded with the lineperson, “Sweetheart, you can’t miss these balls, it’s very important for me.” Fair enough.

He was down a break in the third set too but fought back to break Davydenko twice in a row to win the match, 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4.

Andre Agassi had the same experience with his mid-career break. He resolved some of the psychological issues in his life and went on to become a tennis ambassador and all-round good guy. I don’t expect that of Safin. Not to take anything away from Andre but it’s more fun to pick apart a tortured soul. I just hope he’s improved enough to join Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick in a dynamic top four that would give majors the buzz they deserve.