Today is the first wedding anniversary of Elena Dementieva and her husband Maxim Afinogenov, the perfect occasion to enrich our brand new series entitled WTA Players and their Boyfriends/Husbands, whose ultimate goal is to get together in one place all the information about women's tennis players and their love partners.

On July 16, 2011, the gracious retired tennis star married her long-time boyfriend, Russian professional ice-hockey player, in a Moscow ceremony attended by numerous tennis and hockey players. We first learned about the wedding only a few days before it took place, thanks to Alla Kudryavtseva's tweet. Subsequently, Alla also made sure to show us many photos from the wedding on her Twitter account.

Below the cut you can see a bit of video coverage from the wedding. Read more »

Since the photos of players when they were kids is one of your favorite sections on Women's Tennis Blog, I decided to include it on the homepage, at least for a while. Actually, it's all the idea of our reader Tony (PennettaFan on Twitter). Under the title "Little tennis stars", below in the left sidebar, you can see young Monica Seles and links to all the other players' childhood photos that have been included on Women's Tennis Blog so far.

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Also, I was inspired to make a poll where you can vote for the cutest childhood photo of a WTA player. This list is of course by no means extensive. Feel free to share some cute photos of WTA players you may have come across, and I can feature them in future articles and polls.

Below are my photo favorites included in the poll:

1) Dinara Safina – I love her face expression here.

2) Sara Errani – Adorable curly blond hair, love the vintage look.

Read more »

Elena Dementieva ended her slamless but amazing career last year in October and married her long-time boyfriend, Russian hockey player Maxim Afinogenov in July. The tennis star will now try herself out in a new career field, as a TV host of the show entitled Kukhnya ("Kitchen" in Russian). The show will be aired on a Russian hockey channel KHL and will feature the personal lives of hockey players.

Above you can see Elena Dementieva talking about the show in Russian. (source: Tennis Info Blog)

Alla Kudryavtseva, who was the first to break the news about Elena Dementieva's wedding, took her reporting job seriously and didn't leave the story half told. Thanks to her we have the opportunity to see many pictures from the Moscow wedding and there is also a video from Russian Life News.

The 29-year-old Dementieva, remembered as one of the nicest WTA stars, looked like a princess in her wedding dress.

Dementieva's husband is a famous Russian ice hockey player, Maxim Afinogenov, and many athletes attended the wedding of this sports couple. As for Elena's colleagues, there were Vera Dushevina, Dinara Safina, Maria Kirilenko, Vera Zvonareva, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Ekaterina Makarova. Read more »

Thanks to Alla Kudryavtseva and Twitter we're learning that Elena Dementieva is getting married, according to the tweet I suppose on Saturday, July 16th. Dementieva's husband will be her long-time boyfriend, 31-year-old Maxim Afinogenov. He is a professional ice hockey player.

This news is not a surprise at all. When Dementieva retired from tennis last October she hinted thinking about starting a family:

To be honest with you, I mean, if I would be a man I would never stop playing.  But in the age 29; I have to think about something else. I think I'm ready for the big change in my life.

(source: DeShawn Besabella, photo via My Fabe Tennis)