The supporting evidence is inconclusive. Prior to the Olympics, Kafelnikov, Russia's first major tennis champion, won the French Open (1996) and the Australian Open (1999) and had a brief reign as the world No 1. His 20-year-old compatriot, Marat Safin, dismantled Pete Sampras to win United States Open last September and came close to finishing 2000 as No 1, a distinction achieved instead by the Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten.

And in the women's game there is Anna Kournikova, probably the richest and most glamorous loser in sporting history, whose agents may be aghast that the American Venus Williams, the Wimbledon champion, is reportedly to be paid $40m (?8m) for wearing next to nothing for Reebok.

Elena Dementieva has the looks and the game to become a Kournikova with trophies. For the moment, however, the 19-year-old Muscovite, who gained silver when Williams took the gold in Sydney, is not overwhelmed by market forces.

Last season, her second on the mainstream WTA Tour, Dementieva recalled a meeting with representatives of Prince, the racket company. "They told me: 'We lost your contract'. I said, 'It's OK, no big issue'. They never paid me. I didn't say anything. I am just planning to switch to another racket company."

Blonde and lissom, Dementieva inevitably has to deal with comparisons with Kournikova, both as a player and as a pin-up. Underlining this, Mikhail Ivanov, contributing editor of the SportsTicker website, asked Dementieva: "Is the title of 'Tennis Lolita' not tempting to you?"

Dementieva responded: "I am not at all tempted by the title of 'Tennis Lolita'. I am trying to prove myself on the court and not off the court. As to the two of us, I think there is enough room out there for whoever plays good tennis. And there will be enoughattention for everybody."

Not that Dementieva craves attention. As she explained to Ivanov: "I think it all depends on the individual. Some want to achieve results on the court. Some want the fame. Some just want to earn big money. I want neither big money nor big fame. I want everything in moderation."

Tennis's return to the Olympic Games as a medal sport in Seoul in 1988 prompted the former Soviet Union to nourish the bourgeois pastime. Since the decline of Communism, however, Russian tennis players have had to seek private funding. Kournikova was a prodigy at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida; sponsorship by a Swiss bank enabled Safin to train in Spain; and Dementieva is in the process of repaying her debt to a patron from Moscow.

Although Dementieva's parents, Viatcheslav, an electrical engineer, and Vera, a teacher, both played recreational tennis, she was initially turned down for junior membership by two of the leading Moscow clubs, Dynamo and the Central Red Army Club (CSKA), and advised to practise at home for a year and come back when her movement and co-ordination improved.

The Spartak Club ?"our last-ditch attempt" ?accepted both Elena and her older brother, Vsevolod, and at the age of seven she began three years of coaching there in the care of Safin's mother, Rausa Islanova (Marat Safin was a member of the same training group).

Dementieva describes Islanova as a tough disciplinarian who instilled in her the desire to fight until the final point. Their association ended after Dementieva's mother, in common with some of the other parents, decided that Islanova was concentrating too much on her son, Marat, and then on his sister, Dinara.

Thanks to Islanova's tuition, Dementieva was welcomed by the Central Red Army Club, and began to taste success in junior tournaments in the company of three other local prospects, Kournikova, Ekaterina Sysoeva and Anastasia Myskina.

Sergei Pashkov, Dementieva's coach at the Central Red Army Club, overhauled her game, from the technique of her strokes to her footwork ("I was sort of running in semi-circles, whereas now I am running down the ball on a diagonal"). Her growing confidence was reflected in her climb up the world ranking: No 182 in 1998; No 62 in 1999; No 12 in 2000.

The month leading up to Dementieva's 19th birthday (15 October) was filled with promise. At the United States Open in New York, she defeated Conchita Martinez, the 1994 Wimbledon champion, in the third round in straight sets and accounted for Germany's Anke Huber in the quarter-finals in three sets, before losing in the semi-finals to America's Lindsay Davenport, the 1999 Wimbledon champion, 6-2, 7-6, having saved four match points to force the tie-break.

After New York, Dementieva went to the Olympics, recovering from a set down in the semi-finals to overcome Jelena Dokic, a Sydney resident, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, before losing to the irresistible Venus Williams in the final, 6-2, 6-4.

Flaws need to be eradicated if Dementieva is to command the court in the manner of Martina Hingis or Davenport or the Williams sisters. Her serve, more Sabatini than Safin, ought to carry more authority considering she is 5ft 11in, and the same is true of her volleying. If a degree of the power she puts into her groundstrokes ?sometimes over-hitting them ?could be transferred to the serve and the volley, the balance would be just about right.

The adjustment may also help Dementieva overcome her aversion to grass courts. "I don't think grass is really made for tennis," she says. "It's too uneven a surface. Too much depends on a lucky bounce."

Steffi Graf expressed similar thoughts before she mastered the surface and won the Wimbledon singles title seven times.