1998- In her first senior tournament, Elena won the El Paso, ITF tournament, winning the final against Diana Ospina in a third-set tie-break

1999 - Elena played her first qualifying event for a WTA tournament in Miami. However she failed to qualify.

2000 - Elena started the season with a 25-match winning streak on the ITF Circuit, winning three consecutive tournaments (the ITF/Jersey, ITF/Birmingham and ITF/Redbridge) and reaching the final of the fourth. Elena also won doubles titles at Jersey and Birmingham.

Elena made her WTA Tour and Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros as a qualifier;

At her next event, Tashkent, Elena reached her first WTA Tour Quarter Final.

Elena finished the season ranked at No. 135, up 263 places in 12 months


2001 - In this year Elena made her first breakthroughs into both the Top 100 and the Top 50. This year too, she played all four Grand Slams for the first time, reaching the 3rd round at Roland Garros.

Elena reached a career-first WTA Tour singles final at Estoril as a qualifier; losing to Angeles Montolio.

She also collected her first Top 10 win, beating the No. 6 ranked Conchita Martinez en route to the Indian Wells Quarter Final (afterwards on 19th March, she broke into the Top 100 at No. 99).

Elena broke into the Top 50 for the first time on the 6th of August at No. 50 after reaching the 2nd round at San Diego.

Elena won her first two WTA Tour doubles titles in consecutive weeks, at Bratislava (with Daja Bedanova) and Luxembourg (with Daniela Hantuchova).

In 2001 Elena represented Russia at Fed Cup for first time

2002
Elena defeated two-time champion and No. 1 seed Nagyova in the Warsaw tournament final to capture her first WTA Tour singles title, becoming the first Russian woman to win a singles title in the 21st century.

She was mixed doubles runner-up with Mark Knowles at Roland Garros.

In the Fed Cup World Group playoff against China, Elena won a singles and a doubles rubber to help lead Russia into the 2003 World Group.

Elena reached her career-first Grand Slam Quarter Final at the US Open, defeating world No. 4, Jelena Dokic in the 2nd round, pushing No. 4 seed Davenport to a 3rd set for the second time in a month. Her ranking vaulted from No. 61 to a new career-high No. 39.

She won her second career title at Quebec City, becoming the tournament’s youngest singles champion at 19 years, 6 months, 12 days.

In her hometown of Moscow, she defeated compatriots Zvonareva and world No. 16 Elena Dementieva (both in 3 sets) before pushing Davenport to 3 sets again in the Quarter Final.

In an exhibition tournament in Dublin in December, Elena defeated Venus Williams the world No 2, in three sets.

2003
January - Elena Reached the Semi Final of the Australian Gold Coast championship, and her world ranking rose three spots to career-high No. 23

Following a Fourth Round finish at the Australian Open in Melbourne, and victories over Magdalena Maleeva and Anastasia Myskina this month, Elena's ranking broke the Top Twenty for the first time. She gained a career-high rank of No. 17 for singles. She also equalled her career-high of No 20 for doubles.

Elena and Rennae Stubbs took the doubles title at the Toray Pan Pacific Tournament in Japan in February. After this tournament, Elena's singles rank rose to a new career high of 16, and her WTA doubles rank soared to an all-time career high of 14.