Dinara Mikhailovna Safina

Dinara Safina
Dinara Safina 2010 in Sydney
Nation:	Russia
Birthday:	April 27, 1986
Size:	182 cm
1st professional season:	2000
Resignation:	2014
Playing hand:	Right, two-handed backhand
Prize money:	$ 10,585,640
singles
Career record:	360: 173
Career title:	12 WTA , 4 ITF
Highest ranking:	1 (April 20, 2009)
Weeks as No. 1:	27
Grand Slam record
Double
Career record:	181: 91
Career title:	9 WTA, 3 ITF
Highest ranking:	8 (May 12, 2008)
Grand Slam record
Olympic games
Sources: official player profiles at the ATP / WTA and ITF (see web links )

Dinara Michailowna Safina ( Russian Динара Михайловна Сафина / scientific transliteration Dinara Michajlovna Safina, Tatar Dinara Mubin qızı Safina; born April 27, 1986 in Moscow , Soviet Union ) is a former Russian tennis player . In 2009 she was number 1 in the WTA world rankings for a total of 27 weeks .

Personal

Safina is of Tatar origin. Her mother Rausa Muhamedschanowna Islanowa was a top ten player in Russia, her father Mikhail Alexejewitsch Safin (Tatar Mubin Aliamtschewitsch) ran a tennis club in Moscow, in which, in addition to Safina, other later stars such as Anna Kurnikova , Jelena Dementjewa and Anastassija Myskina trained. Her six year older brother Marat Safin was number 1 in the ATP world rankings for nine weeks . At the age of 14 years Dinara followed her brother's because of better training conditions Spanish Valencia . The two are the only siblings who have achieved top positions in tennis for both men and women.

Career

2006

At the beginning of the year Safina reached the semi-finals at the tournament in Gold Coast and lost to the eventual winner Lucie Šafářová 4: 6, 2: 6. In doubles, she triumphed alongside Meghann Shaughnessy . At the Australian Open , the end came in the second round against Laura Granville (4: 6, 0: 6). In the quarter-finals of the Open Gaz de France she was defeated by the newly crowned Australian Open winner Amélie Mauresmo with 2: 6 and 2: 6. At the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, she also failed in the quarter-finals against the local hero and then number 1 Kim Clijsters .

Safina also made it to the quarter-finals in Charleston , where she was defeated by defending champion Justine Henin 4-6, 1-6.

At the tournament in Rome she reached the final after victories over Clijsters, Jelena Dementjewa and Swetlana Kuznetsova , which she lost to Martina Hingis 2: 6 and 5: 7. In the last sixteen of the French Open she defeated the number 4 in the world, Maria Sharapova , in a marathon match with 7: 5, 2: 6 and 7: 5, before she lost in the quarter-finals to the eventual finalist Kuznetsova.

In the same year Safina reached the third round of Wimbledon and the quarter-finals of the US Open , but narrowly missed qualifying for the Masters in Madrid.

2007

In Gold Coast this time she won the title in both singles and doubles. In Melbourne they lost to Li Na in round three with 2: 6 and 2: 6. After a rather weak spring, she reached the Charleston final, which she lost to Jelena Janković 2: 6, 2: 6. With Nathalie Dechy , however, she then won the double title of the US Open ; however, it should remain her only Grand Slam title.

2008

After a mixed start with the quarter-finals in Gold Coast against Shahar Peer and the elimination in the first round in Sydney against Daniela Hantuchová , it was also a first-round defeat at the Australian Open. Safina lost to German qualifier Sabine Lisicki 6: 7, 6: 4 and 2: 6. She then provided a ray of hope at the WTA tournament in Miami when she defeated Lindsay Davenport 6: 3, 6: 4 in the round of 16 .

In Amelia Island and Charleston, Aljona Bondarenko and Ágnes Szávay ended in the round of 16. In Berlin, too, she reached the round of 16 after victories over Julia Görges (6: 3, 6: 4) and Kaia Kanepi (6: 4, 6: 3), where she won the then number 1, Justine Henin, with 5: 7, 6 : 3 and 6-1 defeated. After further victories over Serena Williams and Wiktoryja Asaranka , she defeated Dementjewa in the final 3: 6, 6: 2, 6: 2 and thus celebrated her greatest success in the individual up to that point.

At the French Open, Safina met after victories over Kateryna Bondarenko (6: 1, 6: 3), Magdaléna Rybáriková (6: 0, 6: 1) and Zheng Jie (6: 2, 7: 5) in the round of 16 as in 2006 the world number one Maria Sharapova - and again she won the duel (6: 7, 7: 6, 6: 2). In her third Grand Slam quarter-final after Paris and New York in 2006, she was again successful against Dementjewa (4: 6, 7: 6, 6: 0). After her victory over Kuznetsova (6: 3, 6: 2), she met Ana Ivanović in the final , who became the new number 1 through her semi-finals and defeated Safina in the final of Roland Garros 6-4 and 6-3.

After winning tournaments in Los Angeles and Montreal, Safina also reached the final at the Olympic Games in Beijing . In a hard-fought match, she had to admit defeat to her compatriot Dementjewa this time 6: 3, 5: 7 and 3: 6 and be satisfied with the silver medal.

At the US Open, Safina also won her round of 16 game 7: 5 and 6: 0 against the German qualifier Anna-Lena Grönefeld after successes over Kristie Ahn , Roberta Vinci and Timea Bacsinszky . In the quarter-finals she defeated Flavia Pennetta 6: 2, 6: 3 and then retired against the eventual winner Serena Williams with 3: 6 and 2: 6.

At the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo Safina beat Nadja Petrowa 6: 1, 6: 0 in the semifinals and Svetlana Kuznetsova 6: 1, 6.3 in the final, making her third in the world rankings. At the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, she won against Mauresmo and Kuznetsova, among others, before losing to her compatriot Vera Swonaryova in the semifinals . Nevertheless, it was listed as the new number 2.

After losing to Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Jelena Dementjewa, Safina landed last in her group at the final WTA Tour Championships .

2009

Safina 2009 at the tournament in Tokyo

Safina opened the season at the Hopman Cup in Perth , where she competed for Russia with her brother Marat . After victories over Italy, Taiwan and France, the siblings only lost in the final against the Slovak team with Dominika Cibulková and Dominik Hrbatý .

After victories over Sorana Cîrstea , Wera Duschewina , Alizé Cornet and Ai Sugiyama , she lost the final against Dementjewa at the WTA tournament in Sydney .

At the Australian Open, she first won against her compatriots Alla Kudrjawzewa and Jekaterina Makarowa and Kaia Kanepi from Estonia. In the last sixteen she defeated Alizé Cornet 6: 2, 2: 6 and 7: 5, whereby she had to fend off two match points in the third set when the score was 2: 5. Then she defeated Jelena Dokić 6: 4, 4: 6 and 6: 4. After beating Swonaryova in the semi-finals, Safina met Serena Williams. The final ended after just 59 minutes with a 6-, 3-6 defeat; with a win Safina would have taken the lead in the world rankings.

Seeded at number 1, she lost in the quarterfinals of Indian Wells against Wiktoria Asaranka in three sets. Due to the early end, she again missed the jump to the top of the world rankings. There was also an early elimination at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, where she lost to Samantha Stosur in round three .

On April 20, 2009, Dinara Safina was the 19th player in the Open Era and the second Russian after Maria Sharapova to become the new world number one . She and her brother Marat are the first pair of siblings to achieve first place in world tennis. Critics believed Safina's placement was not justified and was due to other top players staying away from tournaments or not being active at the time. Serena Williams, who was then number 2, said in an interview in May of that year at the Italian Open : "We all know who the real number 1 is". Safina was able to hold the top of the WTA ranking for a total of 27 weeks, from April 20 to October 11 and from October 26 to November 1, 2009.

Until the French Open, she only lost one match on clay. At the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart she was beaten 6: 4 and 6: 3 in the final by Svetlana Kuznetsova. Just a week later she managed to get her revenge in Rome when she defeated Kuznetsova 6: 3 and 6: 2. The following week she won the Madrid Masters by beating Caroline Wozniacki in the final (6: 2, 6: 4).

At the French Open in 2009 Safina was able to live up to her role as the big favorite. In the first four encounters, she only lost five games (6: 0, 6: 0 against Anne Keothavong ; 6: 1, 6: 1 against Vitalia Dyachenko ; 6: 2, 6: 0 against Anastassija Pavlyuchenkova ; 6: 1, 6 : 0 against Aravane Rezaï ). In the quarterfinals, she met Asarenka, against whom she gave the only set on the way to the final at 1: 6, 6: 4 and 6: 2. In the semifinals she defeated Dominika Cibulková 6: 3, 6: 3. In the final, as in Stuttgart and Rome, she met Kuznetsova again, to whom she lost 4-6 and 2-6 after many mistakes. Nevertheless, Safina remained number 1.

In Wimbledon, after a tough start, she reached the semi-finals with victories over Amélie Mauresmo (round of 16: 4: 6, 6: 3, 6: 4) and Sabine Lisicki (quarter-finals: 6: 7, 6: 4, 6: 1), in which she met the defending champion. Against Venus Williams, she then suffered a clear defeat (0: 6, 1: 6) in just 41 minutes. At the end of July Safina was in a final again in Portotoz , Slovenia . The win over Sara Errani was her twelfth and, for the time being, last title win on the WTA Tour.

2010

In the preparatory tournament for the Australian Open in Sydney, she made it to the quarter-finals, where she was eliminated in two sets against her permanent rival Dementjewa. In the round of 16 in Melbourne Safina had to give up the match against her compatriot Maria Kirilenko . A back injury forced her to take a three-month break.

She celebrated her comeback in April at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. After a bye in round one, she beat Ágnes Szávay in three sets. In the quarterfinals she had to admit defeat to Shahar Peer 3: 6, 2: 6. A week later Safina played at the WTA tournament in Rome, where she lost to Alexandra Dulgheru in three sets after a bye . At the tournament in Madrid she surprisingly lost to Klára Zakopalová 6: 7, 6: 7 in round one . At the beginning of the French Open she had to play against the 39-year-old "tennis grandma" Kimiko Date Krumm . The weak Safina lost this game after taking the lead in three sets.

At the beginning of the grass season, she was eliminated in three sets at the WTA tournament in 's Hertogenbosch against Magdaléna Rybáriková . After another injury, she could not compete in Wimbledon.

In Stanford , she lost again in three sets against Date Krumm. At the WTA tournament in San Diego, she won in round one against Aljona Bondarenko 6: 1, 7: 6. In the round of 16 she was defeated by Agnieszka Radwańska 1: 6, 3: 6. In Cincinnati she reached the second round and lost there clearly against Clijsters. In the round of 16 in Montreal, she was eliminated from the newly crowned French Open winner Francesca Schiavone , and a week later in the quarter-finals in New Haven against Kirilenko (3: 6, 3: 6) - after victories over Hantuchová and Schiavone. At the US Open it was again an opening defeat (3: 6, 4: 6 against Hantuchová).

At the WTA tournament in Seoul , she was eliminated in the quarterfinals with 5-7, 3-6 against Klára Zakopalová. In Tokyo there was a first round defeat against Görges (1: 6, 7: 5, 2: 6). Safina was also eliminated in round one in Beijing (4-6, 6-7 against Swonarewa). After the tournament, she ended the season prematurely due to renewed injury problems.

2011

At the beginning of the year Safina played at the WTA tournament in Auckland, where she lost to Yanina Wickmayer in three sets right at the beginning . In Hobart, Marion Bartoli knocked her 6-0, 6-1 off the pitch in round one. A week later she lost her first round match at the Australian Open against Clijsters in just 44 minutes with 0: 6 and 0: 6. At the tournament in Kuala Lumpur , she lost in a hard-fought three-set match in round two against Lucie Šafářová, but won the title in doubles. Safina provided a ray of hope at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. There she reached the round of 16 with wins over Arantxa Parra Santonja (6: 3, 6: 3), Daniela Hantuchová (7: 6, 6: 4) and Samantha Stosur (7: 6, 6: 4); then she lost to Sharapova 2: 6, 0: 6. In Miami, Safina lost to Swonarewa in three sets in round two. In Marbella she had to give up in the quarter-finals against Asarenka (back injury). In Fez she reached the semi-finals, to which she could not compete because of stomach cramps. In Madrid she was eliminated in the second round 4: 6, 6: 4 and 4: 6 again against Julia Görges.

End of career

After that defeat, Safina took a break due to a persistent back injury. On October 7, 2011, her brother Marat announced her final resignation from professional tennis. Only hours later, she denied the message that she was not ready for this step. On May 6, 2014, around three years after her last professional game in Madrid , Dinara Safina officially announced her resignation.

Tournament victories

singles

No.	year	competition	category	Topping	Final opponent	Result
1.	2002	Sopot	WTA Tier III	sand	Henrieta Nagyová	6: 3, 4: 0 task
2.	2003	Palermo	WTA Tier IV	sand	Katarina Srebotnik	6: 3, 6: 4
3.	2005	Paris	WTA Tier II	Hard court (hall)	Amélie Mauresmo	6: 4, 2: 6, 6: 3
4th	2005	Prague	WTA Tier IV	sand	Zuzana Ondrášková	7: 6, 6: 3
5.	2007	Gold coast	WTA Tier III	Hard court	Martina Hingis	6: 3, 3: 6, 7: 5
6th	2008	Berlin	WTA Tier I	sand	Jelena Dementjewa	3: 6, 6: 2, 6: 2
7th	2008	los Angeles	WTA Tier II	Hard court	Flavia Pennetta	6: 4, 6: 2
8th.	2008	Montreal	WTA Tier I	Hard court	Dominika Cibulková	6: 2, 6: 1
9.	2008	Tokyo	WTA Tier I	Hard court	Svetlana Kuznetsova	6: 1, 6: 3
10.	2009	Rome	WTA Premier 5	sand	Svetlana Kuznetsova	6: 3, 6: 2
11.	2009	Madrid	WTA Premier Mandatory	sand	Caroline Wozniacki	6: 2, 6: 4
12.	2009	Portorož	WTA International	Hard court	Sara Errani	6: 7 5 , 6: 1, 7: 5

Performing in Grand Slam tournaments

singles

competition	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	Balance sheet	Career
Australian Open	-	1	3	2	2	3	1	F.	AF	1	15: 9	F.
French Open	-	1	2	1	VF	AF	F.	F.	1	-	20: 8	F.
Wimbledon	-	1	1	3	3	2	3	HF	-	-	12: 7	HF
US Open	2	AF	1	1	VF	AF	HF	3	1	-	18: 9	HF

Double

competition	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	Balance sheet	Career
Australian Open	-	VF	VF	2	AF	1	-	-	1	9: 6	VF
French Open	1	2	2	AF	AF	AF	-	2	-	9: 7	AF
Wimbledon	-	-	AF	-	1	AF	-	-	-	4: 3	AF
US Open	-	1	1	F.	S.	-	-	-	-	11: 3	S.

Web links

Commons : Dinara Safina  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• WTA profile Dinara Safina (English)
• ITF profile Dinara Safina (English)
• Fed Cup stats by Dinara Safina (English)
• Dinara Michailowna Safina in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ranking Watch: Safina Rises to No.1 . In: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour , April 20, 2009, accessed June 2, 2012
2. ^ Venus teaches Safina hard lesson . In: Toronto Star , July 3, 2009, accessed June 2, 2012
3. ↑ It's still the No. 1 question for Dinara Safina . In: Los Angeles Times , August 4, 2009, accessed June 2, 2012
4. ↑ Safina ends professional career. In: sport1.de. October 7, 2011, accessed May 13, 2014 . 
5. ↑ Dinara Safina at the end of her career. In: derstandard.at. October 8, 2011, accessed May 13, 2014 . 
6. ↑ Dinara Safina announces the end of her career. In: tennisnet.com. May 7, 2014, accessed May 13, 2014 . 
7. ↑ Safina finally resigns. In: spox.de. May 6, 2014, accessed May 13, 2014 .