Safina Looking to Improve

From The Telegraph: Safina has old guard in sights

Being the sister of Marat Safin, it was perhaps understandable that Dinara Safina should believe it when everyone around her told her that success would come as a matter of course. Naturally, it didn't. There never has and never will be a substitute for hard work, no matter how good the pedigree or how great the talent, and now it's beginning to pay off, to such an extent that Martina Hingis recently predicted she could even eclipse her two-time grand slam-winning brother. Safina will take that with a pinch of salt also...

Safina Defeats Hingis in Final

From cnn.com: Safina takes title in revenge win

Dinara Safina proved she could keep a lid on her emotions when it mattered by beating Martina Hingis 6-3 3-6 7-5 in the final of the Australian women's hardcourt championships on the Gold Coast on Saturday...

The frustrated Swiss had only herself to blame as she let Safina off the hook time and again with her inability to convert the majority of the break-point opportunities she earned.

"I'd like to congratulate Dinara, what a week (you've had)," Hingis said during the presentation ceremony.

"Today she was just too good and everyone should watch her because she's gonna be maybe even better than her brother.

"Marat is such a genius. He can play unbelievable tennis. She (Safina) definitely doesn't have as much touch but she has more will and desire."

Safina Accuses Likhovtseva of Faking Injury

From The Age: Safina accuses compatriot of feigning injury in match

CONTROVERSY struck the Australian Women's Hardcourt Championships yesterday when world No. 11 Dinara Safina accused fellow Russian Elena Likhovtseva of faking a foot injury during their first-round match at Royal Pines...

"I don't think she had something, maybe she had, but I don't believe in these games," said Safina...

Safina Dealing With Fatigue Syndrome

From The Herald Sun: Safina finding stamina to take her all way

THREE months ago, Russian Dinara Safina was wondering when she would be able to again bring her power to bear on women's tennis.

Safina, the world No. 11, yesterday convinced herself she has regained the stamina to withstand an Australian summer with the best of them and also hold her young Russian compatriots at bay at the Gold Coast this week.

Safina, 20, did not play the last three weeks of last season because she was diagnosed with fatigue syndrome, which she hopes she has learnt to control...

"In October, I couldn't play for three minutes without stopping. All I could do was stand in one place and still I was getting tired, but I'm told I can take care of this problem if I stay focused on it."

Tournament Update

Henin-Hardenne wins Eastbourne in a 3rd set tiebreak over Myskina; Gasquet becomes the first man ever to defend Nottingham with a 6-4 6-3 win over Bjorkman, Michaela Krajicek straight-setted Dinara Safina at Ordina (a day after beating Dementieva! What a week.), and Ancic defended Ordina in 3 sets against Jan Hernych.

Wimbledon Draws are Out!: The Women

Here's the women's draw. Venus landed at the bottom of Mauresmo's quarter of the draw and so did 14th seed Dinara Safina. Other trouble spots: a newly brunette Tatiana Golovin and Ana Ivanovic who's already beaten Amelie this year. Michaela Krajicek, who's still having a great week in Nottingham, is a potential 2nd round match up for Mauresmo.

Sharapova's section looks pretty straightforward until Dementieva in the quarters, though Schiavone, Sania Mirza, and Danilidou, who made the semis at the Ordina Open, could add some spice.

Hingis, Hantuchova, Jamea Jackson and Patty Schnyder are in Justine Henin-Hardenne's section of the draw. Will be interesting to see if Hingis can reach the massive roadblock that is Justine.

At the bottom of the draw, there are a few threats between #5 seed Kuznetsova and #2 seed Kim Clijsters: Vaidisova, Na Li and Kirilenko.

News: Petrova's pulled out with her lingering groin injury from the French.

Update on this Week's Tournies

Nottingham: Defending champ Richard Gasquet KO'd  countryman Gilles Simon in 3 and 1; Italian Andreas Seppi beat Andy Murray in 3; Robin Soderling, who has yet to drop a set, over Tipsarevic in 2,  and Bjorkman over Lopez.  I'm gonna go with Gasquet to repeat his win.

At the Ordina Open, Men's, it'll be defending champ Mario Ancic v. Marcos Baghdatis (making his first semi since Australia) and  Jan Hernych vs. Forent Serra (who took out JC Fererro in 3). The women: Elena Demetieva, Danilidou, Dinara Safina and Michaela Krajicek. I'm going with Ancic and Safina.

Eastbourne: It'll be  Henin-Hardenne vs. Clijsters and Kuznetsova v. Myskina. I'm going with Kuznetsova over Henin-Hardenne in the final.

Quote Round Up

This is literally yesterday's news, but here's a great round up of quotes from Monfils, Sharapova, Blake, Venus Williams, Dinara Safina and more.

Upset Weekend, Part 2

Well, Sunday's shaping up to be a day of upsets as well. Maria Sharapova went down to Dinara Safina in 3, and Mario Ancic took out Tommy Robredo in 5.

Hingis Wins Rome

Hingis took out Dinara Safina 6-2 7-5 to win the first trophy of her comeback. A great tournament for her, and it looks like she's got a real chance to finally win her first French Open title. Here's a match summary.

Who are your picks for Roland Garros? My money's on Justine Henin-Hardenne.

Robredo Wins Hamburg: Hingis v. Safina in Rome

So it's the third win for an ATP blogger (James Blake and Ivan Ljubicic were the others). Tommy Robredo, this week's very entertaining blogger, just won his first Master's Shield, in style, over Radek Stepanek 6-1 6-3 6-3. Robredo played a really clean match, making almost twice as many winners as errors, and Radek's game really broke down.  Here's a match summary.

As of tomorrow, Tommy's will be no. 7 in the world, displacing Blake; and Radek will be just 10 points shy of the top 10 for the first time. (Hmm, Tommy just said in his champion's speech that he had not been "perfectly mentally" in the last five months and thanked his friends and family for sticking by him. Well, good for him; hopefully whatever problems he was having will be erased by his triumph in Hamburg.)

Now it remains to be seen if Radek's girlfriend Martina Hingis will do him one better and win today in Roma. Yesterday's match was a thriller; Venus was blowing Hingis off the court and won seven straight games before the train derailed in the second set. Dinara Safina will try to continue her incredible streak (Clijsters, Dementieva, Kusnetsova, anyone?) this week. Here's to hoping Marat flies in to support his little sister so we can get some great reaction shots.

The match is maybe on (or over) already, but I'm going to wait to watch the delayed feed on The Tennis Channel at 2pm (Eastern).

Escape Artists

Venus Williams made a valiant effort to come back from 5-7 3-4* down to defeat Jelena Jankovic 7-5 6-4 6-1. I love it when Venus refuses to lose!

"Super" Mario Ancic did the same against poor little Kolya Davydenko (from 5-7 1-4), who looked incredibly despondent after losing the second set. Ancic somehow found a second wind after looking haggard and tired early in the second to take it 5-7 7-6 6-3. This is Ancic's second  resurrection this week against a top 10 player; he had another come back from James Blake earlier in Hamburg. Ancic, or Mario An-choke (*snicker* *snicker*) as his detractors call him, can hopefully put his naysayers to rest. That last set was very Crane Kick. Well done!

Also, Dinara Safina, Marat's baby sis, shocked Dementieva 6-1 6-1 the day after ousting Clijsters in Roma. Nice run.

Safina Upsets Sharapova

Every now and then an upset is good.  Sharapova was rusty from lack of play, her injury is probably not fully healed, and she was nervous playing in front of the Russian crowd. She'll forget about this one in no time and go back to training to get up to full-speed again.

And for Safina - well, I suppose it is a lot to ask for anyone from her family to show any kind of consistency, but maybe this will finally make her realize that if she keeps her head in the match for all three sets she can win a lot more matches than she does.  And if not - she still gets to have a great day today :)

From CNN International: Sharapova slumps to Russian Safina

Maria Sharapova was ousted from the Kremlin Cup quarterfinals by Dinara Safina 1-6 6-4 7-5 in a battle of Russian teenagers.

Safina, urged on by her brother, Marat Safin, lost the opening set before staging a spirited comeback to beat the world number one.

"This is undoubtedly the biggest win of my career so far," said the 19-year-old. "Until now I've never beated the world's top player," she added.

Petrova and Safina

Nadia Petrova and Dinara Safina were both feeling honest today.  They both won their matches at the Luxembourg Open by identical 6-3, 6-1 scores over Kveta Peschke and Jamila Gajdosova respectively.

Afterwards Petrova had this to say about her performance:

"To be honest, this morning I didn't feel like playing.  I have been here since Saturday and only played my first match on Thursday so I had a lazy feeling.

"But as soon as I stepped on court everything turned around and my legs felt back and I was ready to fight."

And Safina was similarly unimpressed with herself.  "Before I came here I couldn't hit three successive balls in the same place so my goal was just to win a match."

As the Coaches Turn

Dinara Safina's embarrassing  6-1, 6-1 defeat at the hands of Li Na in the Estoril Open semifinals this weekend was apparently the last straw. 

"There are no words to describe this match.  I wasn't missing by just a little, I was hitting out three of four metres."

Her solution?  A change in coaches.  "Even before this tournament I was thinking of going back to my Russian coach and now I'm telling him I am breaking it off," Safina said. 

So Lars Wahlgren is out and it sounds as if Safina never wanted to work with him in the first place.  "After the Australian Open, my Russian coach broke up with me because I wasn't listening to him.   My agents offered me Lars and I said yes because I needed a coach."

The partnership seemed to work initially as Safina defeated Amelie Mauresmo to win the Paris Open in February, but it's been all downhill since then including a loss to Francesca Schiavone in Fed Cup.

"We are not working on what I need to improve," she said. "I need to work on my serve and my forehand and I need to work to improve but I'm not improving, I'm getting worse."

So Wahlgren is out and Alexander Zlatoustov is back.  For now.