A few years ago, Anna Chakvetadze, her long braid whipping around behind her on court, was a teenager on the rise. She made her first big splash at the 2004 U.S. Open. Playing in her third WTA Tour main draw and her first Grand Slam, she reached the third round and defeated No. 3 Anastasia Myskina to tie her with Serena Williams as the second-fastest woman to beat a top-10 opponent. In 2006, she reached the fourth round of the Open and cracked the top 20 after winning her first two titles, the second of which came in her hometown of Moscow. There she proved herself among the gaggle of other top Russian women by defeating Dinara Safina, Maria Sharapova, Elena Dementieva and Nadia Petrova for the title. That year was big, but Chakvetadze's 2007 was even bigger. She won four tournaments and reached the Australian and French Open quarterfinals and the U.S. Open semis. With her grinding game and ability to unleash her powerful shot-making ability at any moment, she was like a 2007 version of Caroline Wozniacki. She even had a top-5 ranking to match. Chakvetadze's mental stamina in matches was also reminiscent of the Dane's. But a year later, something had happened to her unflappability. Until she won the Slovenia Open last week, Chakvetadze had suffered a serious title and confidence drought. She hasn't been past the second round at a Slam since Wimbledon two years ago, and her ranking fell to No. 118 earlier this year. Read more: http://espn.go.com/sports/tennis/blog/_/name/tennis/id/5416303/chakvetadze-hoping-dark-days-behind
