Maria Sharapova’s run at Roland Garros was halted today by her fellow Russian Dinara Safina. Safina, who was the finalist at last month’s Internazionali d’Italia in Rome, outlasted the 2004 Wimbledon champion in three sets 7-5, 2-6, 7-5.
Safina fought back from a 1-5 deficit in the third set to secure her berth in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. She has spent most of her tennis career under the shadow of her Grand Slam champion brother Marat Safin, but she is quickly proving herself as the most consistent member of the family.
Safina, forever known as the younger and less successful sister of Marat Safin, the enigmatic men’s player and a former world No 1, made her first grand slam quarter-final. “Marat sent me a text message after the match, saying: ‘Great fight, good comeback’,” Safina, 20, said. “I mean, that was nice. I used to be the little sister to my brother, so I want to continue like this.”
(source: Telegraph)
Dinara Safina will face Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals later on this week.
I saw the last set and it was really intense. Safina was down 0-4 before she finally held serve. Once she saw Maria faltering and getting flustered, Dinara pounced — and got a quarterfinal showing for her effort.
Sharapova’s breakdown (she served for the match twice and got broken twice) reminded me a lot of her 2005 Australian Open loss against Serena Williams. On both occasions her loss of concentration while serving for the match allowed her opponent to turn the tables on her.
Noelle,
I agree with you on Sharapova’s complete meltdown against Safina. It is a pity that she was not able to close out the match after coming so close.
Hopefully she can regain her confidence before Wimbledon.