It was just a year ago that Dinara Safina was on the cusp of ascending to the world No. 1 ranking, but these days the temperamental Russian is struggling to get back on the court.
In her latest message to fans, written on her website, the current world No. 2 has written: “Unfortunately, I will not be able to play in Miami [which begins on March 23rd] this year because of the back injury that's been bothering me since the end of last season”.
Safina may have endured six months of mentally bruising press conferences last year as the media time and time again questioned her right to the top women’s ranking, but at this juncture some post-match time in the hot seat in front of a few journalists might hold some appeal.
The 23-year-old revealed she’d been suffering from back problems at the Tour Championships in Doha when just two games into her opening round-robin match against Jelena Jankovic she was forced to withdraw from the tournament.
If Safina has proved herself fragile at the crucial moments at the Grand Slams – she’s thrice been runner-up at the majors – she’s also time and time again proved herself to be fiercely competitive on the WTA Tour.
In fact, the competitive fires in Marat Safin’s little sister burned bright enough to play through the pain for three months in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to secure the year-end No. 1 ranking.
She then narrowly won the race against time to be fit enough to compete at the Australian Open, but as it turned out, not fit enough to last the distance. The back injury flared during her fourth round match against Maria Kirilenko and Safina was forced to retire from the Australian Open, where she’d been seeking that elusive first Grand Slam title. The one that would silence all those who’d questioned her right to the No. 1 ranking in 2009 while her CV remained bereft of a major crown.
Whether those two decisions – to play on to the end of last season, and to fight for fitness in time to take to the courts at Melbourne Park – have meant Safina’s 2010, and maybe her career, have suffered a longer term setback is something that is probably kept between the Russian and her team at present.
Certainly the power hitter wouldn’t be the first tennis player to be guilty of pushing to return to competition too early, but as one by one she drip feeds news of withdrawals from successive tournaments – Miami follows Dubai and the in-progress BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells – one can’t help but wonder if the situation would have been the same had Safina opted to take her post-Doha recovery that bit slower.
As the things currently stand, Safina is powerless to defend any of the ranking points she accumulated on the tour last year, by the end of Indian Wells she could feasibly drop out of the No. 2 spot – provided Caroline Wozniacki reaches the final, and the Dane has so far reached the semis.
If her ranking doesn’t drop now, then if Safina is not back to play at Stuttgart at the end of April, the first of four consecutive tournaments where the Russian reached the final for two titles, it surely will then.
It can only be assumed that Safina is all too aware of the rankings situation that will very soon present itself and will be keen to give herself a chance of defending some of those points. But by now the Moscow-born player would also know the importance of patience in making her next return from injury.
Even those who were most critical of Safina’s right to the world No. 1 ranking last year would surely welcome her return to competition this year. As long as it’s not too soon.
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