In a press conference at China Open, Marat Safin said that his sister Dinara Safina had finished her tennis career. He further explained his comment: “She has injured her spine two years ago her at China Open. She has tried a comeback, which only made things worse. Now she needs to take care of her spine, to be able to walk  and lead a normal life. She will continue her rehabilitation, but she will no longer play tennis. It is impossible.”  In response to another correspondent’s question if his statement is an official announcement of her retirement, Marat said: “She will make the official announcement herself. But as her brother, I think, it is simply impossible to come back.”

TennisInfoBlog wishes all the best to Dinara in her future endeavors.

(Source: tennis.ru)

Tennis player Maria Sharapova with an annual income of $22 million tops the list of the 50 powerful Russian celebrities. She is followed by football forward Andrei Arshavin with over $7 million. There are 19 newcomers on the list among whom are Dinara Safina (16th, $4.5 million), and Vera Zvonareva (42nd, $2,4 million). Elena Dementieva was the 19th ($1.9 million) and Svetlana Kuznetsova was 33rd ($3 million). The rankings were estimated based on earnings, media exposure and search terms on Yandex Russian search engine.

Interestingly Maria was also the only Russian ranked at 76th on the Forbes’ 100 Celebrities list 2009. It should be noted that Maria was sidelines for nine months by the shoulder injury.  Despite her absence from the courts, her web rank was 15. Not bad ha?

Read more about Maria’s celebrity power here, and here.

Venus Williams’ interview after blowing world No. 1 Dinara Safina away 6-1, 6-0
Q. Was that one of your easiest passages through to a final?VENUS WILLIAMS: Yes, it was very successful for me. I was really pleased with my form. Of course, playing against the No. 1 player in the world, it’s exciting to play so well.

So, I mean, obviously I had to work hard for it, but I was able to do a lot of the right things today.

Q. Was it near perfect?

VENUS WILLIAMS: You know what, uhm, I don’t know if there’s such a thing as perfect for an athlete, but I felt happy with it. And I felt like my performance has been building each round better and better. So it felt good to play even better today.

Q. Today do you think you were 6?1, 6?Love stronger than Safina, or something happened to her? The score is very strange.

Read more »

No. 1 Dinara Safina and No. 7 Svetlana Kuznetsova meet today in the French Open’s women’s final, a matchup of 23-year-old Russians. Here is what they said about each other:

Svetlana Kuznetsova about Dinara Safina (via Sovetski Sport):

“We have a really good relationship with each other. Our tennis rivalry doesn’t allow us to become closer friends. Nevertheless, we talk to each other about various life topics, give each other advice. I have much closer ties with Nadia Petrova. Before her, Likhovtseva was a good friend of mine, when she was on the tour. I know Dinara since we were 12-13. I remember, she was a year younger than me, but would beat me always 6:1, 6:0 - something like that. I had no chance of winning her.  Thus, I was looking at her always differently. After all I was a girl from St. Petersburg. She was a Moscovite. Her mom was one of the chief tennis coaches of the country. Her brother–a superstar. I remember running and shouting after him to get an autograph: “Marat, Marat, give me an autograph, please. I know your sister.” By the way, Dinara’s mom, greatly helped my parents, when they decided to send me into the Spanish academy. Safina was also being trained in Spain at that time. But even then we were first and foremost tennis rivals.”

Dinara Safina about Svetlana Kuznetsova (via RIA Novosti)

“Svetlana is a very open and honest person. She will never do anything behind your back. I think it is a very valuable quality. Whether she is right or wrong, it is another issue, but she will say whatever is on her mind. But there are people who smile at you and then stab your back. I know that Sveta will never do that.”

Dinara Safina of Russia officially took over the top ranking on the WTA Tour on Monday. Dinara’s achievement makes her and older sibling Marat Safin the only brother-sister duo to have been No. 1 in professional tennis. To honor her success. I am posting some of her childhood photos. Those pictures remind us how hard it is to get where she is now. It takes years and years of hard work, dedication, discipline, and belief in yourself. Congratulations!.

Injured Serena Williams has been upset by 95th-ranked Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic in a clay-court tournament in Spain.  Zakopalova won 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 Wednesday in the first round of the Andalucia Tennis Experience. I wonder how much was the appearance fee that Serena flew to Spain to lose in the first round? 

Serena’s loss helps Russian Dinara Safina to claim the WTA top ranking

World number one Serena Williams has been voted the WTA Tour player of the year for the second time in a row. Serena wasn’t present at the ceremony at the Sony Ericsson Open to honor the award winners and has released this statement:

“Winning the Player of the Year award for the second time in my career is a great personal achievement. I feel great about my game and hope to win many more player of the year titles in the years to come.”

Russia’s Dinara Safina was Most Improved Player of the Year,  Ana Ivanovic was chosen humanitarian of the year for her work and contributions to UNICEF, and Elena Dementieva was honored with the Karen Krantzcke sportsmanship award.

(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Serena Williams once again demonstrated that she is THE ONE, AND the number 1 in the world. Serena simply overpowered the No 3 seeded Russian Dinara Safina to win her fourth Australian Open tennis title and move to 10 career Grand Slams.  No. 2 seed Williams defeated Safina 6-0, 6- 3 in 59 minutes. She won her other Australian Open titles in 2003, 2005, 2007. Some commentators keep repeating how she is always victorious in odd years, but I have only one explanation for that phenomenon, it is called “coincidence.”

Why triple win? With her Australian Open title, Serena once again becomes the No 1 in the world, and (yes it gets even better for her), she collects $1.3 million US dollars to lift her career winnings to $23.4 million. Two days ago Serena Williams passed golfer Annika Sorenstam as the top prize money-earner in women’s sports history. YES, history! Wow… congratulations! Would she please stop whining about the money? [I had to say something nasty, no? After all I was rooting for Safina.]

[TIB: If you are fascinated by Serena and Venus Williams’ careers and personalities, you might consider buying their book Venus and Serena: Serving From The Hip: 10 Rules for Living, Loving and Winning.]

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev met yesterday with Russian national tennis team and their captain Shamil Tarpischev in Kremlin. This year’s Beijing Olympics champion Elena Dementieva has given her Olympic “gold” racket to President Medvedev as a gift. Would you give your Olympic racket to your President?

Elena Vesnina blogs about the experience.  According to her, all the players were very nervous initially but thanks to Marat Safin who told a couple of jokes to break the ice, they relaxed and greatly enjoyed the experience. They drank some tea, and the President thanked them for all their achievements.

Dinara Safina looks gorgeous. I am not saying anything about her brother

Dementieva thinking: “Just don’t sell it on Ebay, please.”

Medvedev thinking: “What the hell is this?”

Dinara Safina of Russia who reached the quarter-finals at the U.S. Open, said that she wasn’t going to play in Fed Cup final against Spain. She is simply exhausted.