Dementieva battles into fourth round

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) - Russian fifth seed Elena Dementieva battled her way into the fourth round at Wimbledon on Saturday 7-6 7-5 after a patchy and slow start against feisty Argentine Gisela Dulko.

Dementieva was annoyed with herself afterwards, determined from now on to be much more aggressive on her serve and come out fighting from the very first point.

The Russian, a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon two years ago, started by dropping her first four games on a sunny number two court.

But then she suddenly found her rhythm, fought doggedly back and landed the tiebreak 7-2.

"This is the last thing you want to have -- a slow start on a grass surface. Everything is so fast. You really have to be ready to serve from the first point and be aggressive and take advantage," she said afterwards.

"I have played a couple of times against Gisela before and I have never beaten her. So maybe today in the beginning I was a little bit nervous," she said.

The second set was an intriguing battle of wills with the determined pair level-pegging all the way to 5-5 when Dementieva made the crucial breakthrough on Dulko's service and then held on to win.

The victory taught Dementieva some valuable lessons.

"The most important thing for me is to be focused in the beginning and not give such a big opportunity to the other player," she said on her 10th year at Wimbledon. "I have to work more to play better here."

Dementieva said it was so difficult to win a grand slam because "you have to stay fit and healthy for two weeks and it's all about sometimes a slow start but then how you can progress and how you can improve your game."

(Reporting by Paul Majendie, Editing by Clare Lovell)