Dinara Mikhailovna Safina (Dinara Mөbin qızı Safina) was born in Moscow, in the ethnic Tartar family. Dinara’s mother and her first coach is Rauza Islanova, one of the top-10 Soviet tennis players. Her elder brother, Marat Safin, was the World Number 1 player, but now his sport career as a player is completed. Recently she was only “Marat’s younger sister, playing tennis as well”, but now Safina seems to be even more successful. Dinara lives in Monte Carlo, Monaco now, having Russian citizenship.

Sport career

Dinara Safina begun playing tennis at the age of 8 and became a professional tennis player in 2000. In 2001 Dinara played in the semi-finals of the Youth Wimbledon. She took her first title in 2002, in Sopota, having debuted in the USA-open. Dinara finished this season in the top-100 professional tennis players.

In 2003 Dinara took part in all the 4 Grand Slam tournaments. She played in the 4th round in the US Open. Next year, 2004, Dinara was in the final of the tournament in Beijing and in the semi-finals of the second-category tournament in Paris and was caught up in the top-50 WTA.

After that, in 2005 Dinara won in Paris and Prague and reached semi-finals of the Kremlin Cup, a very prestigious Russian tournament and three WTA tournaments as well. This year Safina was already between the top-20 professional tennis players.

In 2006 Dinara’s rating kept on growing. She played in quarter-finals of Roland Garros and US Open and also of the tournaments in Charleston, Indiana Wales and Berlin. Dinara reached semi-finals of the Canada Masters and got through to the final round in Rome, but was beaten by Martina Hingis. As a result, Dinara’s name reached the 11th position in WTA rating.

Next year, 2007, Dinara Safina got own back and beat Martina Hingis in Gold Coast, Australia. She became the 9th in the world, having come through the finals in Charleston. But she receded from her position rather soon and finished the season occupying the 16th line.

The next season, 2008, begun also without triumph: Dinara lost in the first round of Australian Open. But then the improvement went on again. In Miami Safina reached quarter-finals, then she won twice, playing doubles in Gold Coast and Indiana Wales. Safina was one of four women representing Russia at the Summer Olympics in Beijing. Seeded sixth, she defeated World No. 1 and second-seeded Jelena Jankovič in the quarterfinals in three sets. This made Safina the first player in the history of the WTA Tour to defeat three different reigning World Number Ones in the same year, previously defeating Henin in Berlin and Sharapova at the French Open. In the semifinals, she defeated crowd favorite Li Na in straight sets. In the gold medal match, however, Safina lost to Dementieva in three sets. Safina also entered the doubles competition at the Summer Olympics with Kuznetsova, the pair seeded first. They were, however, defeated by the eighth-seeded team of Yan Zi and Zheng Jie in the third round.

On the April, 20, 2009 Dinara Safina became the World Number One by the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. She is the 19th player and second Russian after Maria Sharapova, to be ranked World Number One. Dinara kept her first position playing in two Grand Slam finals, Australian Open and Roland Garros. Though she reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon, beaten by Serena Williams, Dinara is still the World Number One because of the wins in Madrid and Rome in Masters. The winner of Wimbledon 2009 and World Number two Serena Williams said in the interview, that she considers Dinara really worthy to occupy the top of the WTA rating.

Some facts

To summarize the gains of the Russian tennis player, Dinara Safina is the first player in the history of the WTA Tour to defeat three different reigning World Number Ones in the same year.

Dinara Safina and her brother Marat Safin are the first ever brother-sister World Number One pair (Marat reached the top of the WTA rating by the Association of Tennis Professionals earlier in his career, in 2000).

Dinara enjoys Russian, Italian and Japanese cuisine. Her hobbies include going to the cinema, listening to music and reading. One of the last books she read was Arthur Schopenhauer’s “The art of worldly wisdom”. It was her elder brother who has advised it.

Source:
    www.sports.ru
 

Yulia Buzykina