Many of us wrote off Dinara Safina's chances against Justine Henin last week on the basis of her 0-5
head-to-head record against the world number one. So the Russian's eye-opening victory in the round of
16 at the Tier I Qatar Telecom German Open should have prepared us for the possibility she might
follow up by beating Serena Williams. But many of us were dumbfounded when she halted the American's
17-match winning streak in the quarter-finals. Credulity just flew right out the stadium when she
recovered from a wildly erratic performance in the first set of the final against Elena Dementieva to
capture the biggest tournament title of her career.
Pinning her opponents back deep behind the baseline with her penetrating groundstrokes, 22-year-old Safina
repeatedly delivered the coup de grace by executing an unexpected drop shot. "I think I hit like 20 of
them and I won maybe 18," she said. "This week I played them so good, starting in the match with Justine.
Then every match I was more and more confident."
"I hope I won't wake up tomorrow and realise that this was just a dream," she added after the final.
"Obviously, this has been the biggest success in my career and I still can't believe I actually won
Berlin and beat three Top 10 players in one week. Right now I am the happiest person on Earth but the
problem there is I don't have much time to enjoy it. Tomorrow morning I leave for Rome where everything
starts again!" Unfortunately, however, her efforts in Berlin took quite a toll on her body and a back
injury has forced her to withdraw from the Italian Open.
If she can recover her fitness in time and if she can continue to improve her suspect temperament,
there could be further surprises in store for Safina's doubters at Roland Garros later in the month.
Prior to last week, Safina's most memorable week in tennis was winning her first Tour singles title
at Sopot in 2002. Junior highlights include reaching the girls' singles final at Wimbledon in 2001.
Dinara's family is completely immersed in tennis. Her mother, Raouza Islanova, is responsible for
guiding her through her early years. Her father, Michail, is director of a tennis club in Moscow and
her brother, Marat, has two Grand Slam titles to his name and is never short of advice.
Away from the court, Safina enjoys Russian, Italian and Japanese cuisine. She also likes watching films,
reading and listening to music.
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