Two Elenas

We all know Elena is inconsistent, but she's more than just that.

It's almost like she's two different people. I call them "Iron Maiden" Elena and "Princess" Elena.

Iron Maiden Elena is the tough-as-nails, never-say-die fighter who comes back 2-5 down against one of the best players in the world, who never says die. The girl who, when it goes to a third set you can just look at her and know she's going to pull it out.

Princess Elena is passive, withdrawn, looking like she's waiting for her knight in shining armor to come rescue her.

Even though she's not on TV that often, I almost feel like I can start to tell which Lena has shown up for a given match based on her body language during the first few points.

Has anyone else noticed this contrast? What do you think needs to be done to get more of the Iron Maiden and less of the passive Princess? Is she just plain schitzo?

I'd love to hear what other Lena fans have to say on the topic.

I rather 100% times more the IRON MADEN Elena.

Of course........hell yeah¡¡¡¡

I think that its th Lena we all like to see(when she is playin)

God, I dunno, make mommy Vera starve her for a day or two before sending her out on court? :p

Perhaps if she could find some way to retain confidence in her abilities during the entire match, we would see more of the first Lena.

Maybe she could focus on keeping mayches as short as possible by being aggressive, even if it doesn't pay off immediately. Danger of course is that she'll lose confidence, and she'll start being passive. She has to avoid that by just keeping to go for winners or winning volleys.

I was just thinking about this. To me, she's inconsistent when it comes to playing majors, but overall she is consistent. She's been in the top 10 for four years. So she's definitely winning, but she's not winning when it accounts. And I like what you said about Lena being more aggressive. Honestly, I can't understand why she gets intimidated by Sharapova because Lena has groundstrokes that will burn socks off. It's just whether she applies them. She should be more like Sharapova and attempt winners even if they end up being unforced errors. We all have to admit that Lena has a much prettier game than Sharapova. I really do admire Sharapova, but her game can be so sloppy sometimes.
Also, I've given up declaring that Lena WILL win a Slam. It's like I think that it will come true if I say it or write it. lol :rolleyes: But just think, if Mauresmo finally won Slams, it's definitely not too late for Lena to. I wonder what goes through her head. A player like Sharapova can be playing their worst and still win, so why can't Lena? And I can't say that Sharapova survives because of her serve, because in the AO, her serve was off, so what's the reason? I'm stumped. Why does Lena feel unconfident and inferior at times. :confused:

Definatley, the Dementieva of 04 was not passive. She would go at anyone, her FH was fearsome(it still is to a degree) and was able to out muscle anyone. These days she plays just so passive in big matches, esp against Vaidisova recently and she just looks ordinary when she does that. I mean lena is amazingly fast but her speed wont win her a slam. She needs a coach to tell her to be more aggresive and how to pull this off agaimst top players ;)