Talk about a near-miss: In February, Lucie Safarova held two match points against Jelena Dokic in the final of the WTA stop in Kuala Lumpur before losing in three sets. A win would have given Safarova her first title since 2008.
That experience should help propel her to the top 15, and possibly higher in 2012. Plus, there’s the matter of being part of the Fed Cup-winning Czech team, which is the perfect way for her to end the season.
In the finals against Russia, Safarova lost both of her matches to top-20 ranked opponents Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Still, she was key to the squad being in the position for the big win.
And if Safarova was in need of further inspiration, she should look no further than her Fed Cup teammate and 2011 Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova. Her fellow left-hander ended the season at No. 2 in the rankings, after winning that Major title and the year-end championships, among her six tournament victories.
Safarova has only won four singles titles in her career, but now could be her time to improve upon that, as 2011 helped show. Besides the final in Kuala Lumpur, she was also the runner-up at the tour stop in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Hard courts are where Safarova really shines. During the summer swing, she advanced to the quarterfinals in Toronto, before falling to Serena Williams in three tough sets. Before the Fed Cup final, Safarova made back-to-back semifinals in Linz, Austria, and in Moscow.
Her versatility was on display during the season, by making the quarterfinals in Madrid on clay to go with those impressive hard-court results.
Safarova finished 2011 ranked in the top 25 for the first time since 2007. That year she reached her career-high ranking of 22. It might be a bit of a shock that she’s never cracked the top 20 in her career, particularly since she’s about to enter her 10th year as a professional tennis player. Injuries have played a big part in slowing her progress over the years, and even in 2o11, she had to deal with a thigh problem that caused some of her momentum to stall.
Provided she stays healthy, Safarova could find this is her time to shine. As the past couple of years have shown, the women’s game is in an unprecedented period of depth. Four of the past eight Grand Slams have been won by players capturing one of the game’s Major titles for the first time.
Safarova has a potent left-handed serve and packs plenty of pop on her groundstrokes—definite tools that can give a top player fits. She’s still only 24, essentially entering the prime of her career. Forward progress was made in 2011, and more should be expected in the months ahead.
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Van Sias is a freelance tennis writer based in Brooklyn, NY. He serves as a member of the United States Tennis Writers’ Association, and is also the creator of the blogs Tennis Talk, Anyone? and The Doubles Alley.
