Dinara Safina - French Open Women's Tennis Players
Dinara Safina has reached the world number one spot on the WTA rankings for the first time as of April 2009.
Safina was a surprise finalist at the 2008 French Open and also bagged the Olympic silver medal in Beijing that year. She reached the finals of the Australian Open 2009 only to be defeated by Serena Williams.
It's a Family Business!
Safina has tennis coursing through her veins - elder brother, Marat Safin is a former number one who has had a recent surge in form, Mom was her sounding board and trainer in the early days of her career and Dad is the current director of a top tennis club in Moscow. Marat and Dinara are a unique pair as both have claimed the world number 1 position at some point in their careers.
Safina has claimed a grand slam title already but it was in the doubles of the 2007 US Open together with Nathalie Dechy but her singles game has improved to such an extent in recent times, it can not be too long before she claims the singles crown at one of the four tennis 'majors'.
Safina - Conqueror of the Leading Lights
Safina has got the ability to down the very best in world tennis as she so ably portrayed when she became the last women on the pro circuit to beat the incumbent world number one, Justine Henin, before she retired. That's not the only celebrity scalp she has claimed - Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters, Elena Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Serena Williams and Martina Hingis have all fallen prey to the power and skill of the young Russian at some stage or another! In fact she is the first woman in French Open history to beat three different incumbent world number ones in the same season - Justine Henin at the German Open, Maria Sharapova at the 2008 French Open and Jelena Jankovic at the Beijing Olympics!
After her stellar performance at Roland Garros in 2008 she became the only player to be ranked within the top 10 on the WTA rankings in both singles and doubles and apart from her victory at the German Open, she won the Rogers Cup in Montreal and the Olympus US Open Series which in turn means she will be playing for a substantial amount of bonus money at the US Open.
Dinara Safina has 15 WTA titles firmly on her career resume, four of which were on clay and her overall win/loss record at the French Open is 14-6, so the young woman will certainly be a major force to be reckoned with in future grand slam events, particularly the French Open!