Dinara Mikhailovna Safina is a Russian professional tennis player. As of April 27, 2009, she is ranked World No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association. She has been the runner-up in two Grand Slam singles tournaments and won the women's doubles title at the 2007 US Open with Nathalie Dechy. She also won the Olympic silver medal in women's singles at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Background
Father, Michail, is director of a tennis club in Moscow; mother, Raouza Islanova, is a tennis coach and used to coach Dinara, brother, Marat, was No.1 on men's tour.
Dinara’s destiny was practically predetermined by the history of her family. Her mother was one of the best children’s tennis coaches and Dinara’s brother, Marat, was already training to become the world number one tennis player when she was born. Safina’s mother began taking little Dinara to the courts where she coached when her daughter was just three years old. The tennis court was her playground at first, but she soon became bored of just watching the other children and picked up a racket. Her mother was her first coach and says Dinara absolutely loved tennis from the beginning. When Safina was eight, her family moved to Valencia, Spain, to continue her training following in the footsteps of her brother. While he was already making progress, Dinara seemed to be playing in her brother’s shadow. This continued even after she started winning tournaments. “I’ve gotten used to being known as Marat’s younger sister. I’ve never known anything different so it’s fine for me. Besides, he is bigger and stronger than me, and he has achieved so much more than I have. So until I outdo him, I’m stuck with this reputation,” Dinara said.
Career
2000 - Played first two events of career on ITF Circuit.
2001 - Played first WTA qualifying at Madrid and Moscow; won one singles title and one doubles title on ITF Circuit.
2002 - First Top 100 season; played first WTA main draw at Estoril, reaching SF (l. to Barna); won first WTA title at Sopot (d. Nagyova in final); made Top 100 debut afterwards on July 29 (rose from No.169 to No.90); reached 2r four times (incl. US Open); fell in qualifying twice (incl. Wimbledon); won three singles titles and two doubles titles on ITF Circuit.
2003 - Another Top 100 season; won second WTA title at Palermo (d. Srebotnik in final); QF three times, at Doha, Sopot and Shanghai; reached 4r once (US Open) and 2r four times; fell 1r seven times (incl. other three majors); made Top 50 debut on July 14 (rose from No.64 to No.50).
2004 - First Top 50 season; runner-up at Luxembourg (l. to Molik in final); SF at Paris [Indoors] (l. to Clijsters); QF twice, at Gold Coast and Guangzhou; reached 3r once (Australian Open) and 2r eight times (incl. Roland Garros); fell 1r six times (incl. other two majors) and in qualifying once; won one WTA doubles title.
2005 - First Top 20 season; won two WTA titles, at Paris [Indoors] (d. Mauresmo in final) and Prague (d. Ondraskova in final); SF four times, at Estoril (l. to Li), Luxembourg (l. to Groenefeld), Moscow (l. to Pierce) and Hasselt (l. to Clijsters); reached 3r four times (incl. Wimbledon) and 2r seven times (incl. Australian Open); fell 1r three times (incl. other two majors); made Top 20 debut on October 17 (after Moscow; rose from No.24 to No.20); won one WTA doubles title; member Fed Cup-winning Russian team (won decisive doubles match w/Dementieva).
2006 - Another Top 20 season; runner-up twice, at Rome (l. to Hingis in final) and 's-Hertogenbosch (l. to Krajicek in final); SF twice, at Gold Coast (l. to Safarova) and Montréal (l. to Ivanovic); QF nine times, at Paris [Indoors], Antwerp, Indian Wells, Charleston, Berlin, Roland Garros (l. to Kuznetsova), Los Angeles, US Open (l. to Mauresmo) and Luxembourg; reached 3r twice (incl. Wimbledon) and 2r four times (incl. Australian Open); fell 1r twice; made Top 10 debut on October 2 (No.11 to No.10); won two WTA doubles titles.
2007 - Another Top 20 season; won one WTA title at Gold Coast (d. Hingis in final); runner-up at Charleston (l. to Jankovic in final); SF twice, at 's-Hertogenbosch (l. to Jankovic) and Moscow (l. to Dementieva); QF seven times, at Paris [Indoors], Antwerp, Amelia Island, Berlin, Rome, New Haven and Linz; reached 4r three times (incl. Roland Garros, US Open), 3r four times (incl. Australian Open) and 2r three times (incl. Wimbledon); fell 1r twice; won two WTA doubles titles (incl. first Grand Slam doubles title at US Open w/Dechy).
2008 - First Top 3 season (finishing No.3); slow 11-10 start, best results being two QF at Gold Coast (l. to Peer 46 61 76(3); held 5mp third set) and Miami; seven pre-QF exits in that stretch at Sydney (l. to Hantuchova in 1r), Australian Open (l. to Lisicki in 1r), Doha (l. to Zvonareva in 3r), Dubai (l. to Chakvetadze in 2r), Indian Wells (l. to Harkleroad in 3r), Amelia Island (l. to A.Bondarenko in 3r) and Charleston (l. to Szavay in 3r); turnaround started at Berlin, going 44-7 rest of regular season, a stretch highlighted by four WTA titles at Berlin (d. Dementieva in final), Los Angeles (d. Pennetta in final), Montréal (d. Cibulkova in final) and Tokyo [Pan Pacific] (d. Kuznetsova in final); runner-up three times, at Roland Garros (l. to Ivanovic in first Grand Slam final), 's-Hertogenbosch (l. to Tanasugarn in final) and Olympics (l. to Dementieva in final); SF twice, at US Open (l. to S.Williams) and Moscow (l. to Zvonareva); QF at Stuttgart; only one pre-QF exit after Berlin, at Wimbledon (l. to Peer in 3r); fell in RR stage at first WTA Championships (went 0-3 in RR); having fallen out of Top 10 in May 2007, made Top 10 return on June 9 (after Roland Garros; No.14 to No.9) and peaked at No.2 on October 13 (after Moscow); won two WTA doubles titles; made doubles Top 10 debut on March 15 (rose from No.15 to No.10); withdrew from Rome (May), Birmingham (June) and Beijing (September) w/back injury.
2009 - Second Top 3 season (finishing No.2); won three WTA titles, at Rome (d. Kuznetsova in final), Madrid (d. Wozniacki in final) and Portoroz (d. Errani in final); runner-up five times, at Sydney (l. to Dementieva in final), Australian Open (l. to S.Williams in final; second Grand Slam final), Stuttgart (l. to Kuznetsova in final), Roland Garros (l. to Kuznetsova in final; third Grand Slam final) and Cincinnati (l. to Jankovic in final); SF twice, at 's-Hertogenbosch (l. to Tanasugarn) and Wimbledon (l. to V.Williams; has now reached SF or better at all four majors); QF at Indian Wells; reached 3r three times, incl. US Open (l. to Kvitova 64 26 76(5) in 3r; held 3mp at 6-5 third set) and 2r four times; fell in RR stage at WTA Championships (ret. vs. Jankovic w/low back injury in first match then withdrew from event); became 19th world No.1 in WTA history on April 20 (rose from No.2 to No.1); would spend 26 weeks at No.1 (25 weeks from April 20 to October 11 and one more week between October 26 and November 1).
2010 - First non-Top 20 season in six years (finished No.62); after withdrawing from Brisbane w/back injury, reached QF at Sydney (l. to Dementieva) and 4r at Australian Open (ret. vs. Kirilenko w/back injury); missed three months w/back injury (withdrew from Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami); went 9-14 rest of season, best results being three QF, at Stuttgart (l. to Peer), New Haven (l. to Kirilenko) and Seoul (l. to Zakopalova); won matches three other times, reaching 2r at San Diego (l. to A.Radwanska), 2r at Cincinnati (l. to Clijsters) and 3r at Montréal (l. to Schiavone); lost opening matches eight times, incl. Roland Garros (l. to Date-Krumm in 1r) and US Open (l. to Hantuchova in 1r); also missed Wimbledon and Moscow w/back injury.
2011 - Injury-marred season led to first non-Top 100 finish since 2001 (finishing No.129); played nine events between January and April, best results being SF at Fès (withdrew prior to match vs. Brianti w/illness), QF at Marbella (ret. vs. Azarenka w/back injury) and 4r at Indian Wells (l. to Sharapova); also reached 2r three times, fell 1r three times (incl. Australian Open) and won one WTA doubles title; withdrew from all events rest of season w/back injury (incl. Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open).
2012 - Dinara announced on June 12, 2012 that she has requested wildcards for the 2012 Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, 2012 Montreal Open the 2012 Cincinnati Open and the 2012 US Open. In a later interview, Safina announced that she has withdrawn the requests for wild card entries for all tournaments for 2012.