Elena Dementieva added to Russia's less-than-impressive haul of gold medals at the 2008 Beijing summer Olympics by winning the women's singles tennis tournament on August 17 2008.

Russia swept the podium, with the silver and bronze medals going to Dementieva's compatriots Dinara Safina and Vera Zvonareva, respectively.

Grabbing the gold was not that easy for Dementieva and Safina proved herself a worthy opponent, winning the first set 6-3.

When things looked remarkably similar to the 2000 Sydney Olympics final, when Dementieva lost the title to Venus Williams, Safina started making mistakes, which allowed Dementieva to come back into the match and win the second set 7-5.

The third and decisive set was a mirror image of the first one, but this time with Dementieva as the winner 6-3.

Zvonareva had the task of confronting China's Li Na. Despite the home support Li Na, who beat third-seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round of the tournament and Venus Williams in the quarterfinals, could not resist Zvonareva's serves and lost in straight sets (6-0, 7-5).

Venus and Serena Williams wrapped up the doubles title, however, defeating the Spanish pair of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual in the final in two sets - 6-2,6-0.