Dinara Safina

Dinara Safina is a former professional tennis player. Dinara Safina quickly rose to the top of the international rankings after putting in a lot of effort and training. She was also ranked last in the WTA rankings in 2009.

However, she was overcome with a back problem and performance nerves.

Safina was ridiculed for her performance and failure to win a Grand Slam even while she was the world’s number one.

Childhood and Family

Dinara Safina was born on April 27, 1986, in Moscow, Russia.

Raouza Islanova, her mother, is a tennis instructor who has coached many successful players, including her own children.

Michail, her father, was also the director of a Moscow tennis club.

Marat Safin, Safina’s older brother, is also a tennis player.

Marat has won the US Open, Australian Open, and two grand slams during his career. Clearly, this is a tennis-playing family.

Growing up in a family of achievers was challenging for Safina, but she persevered.

Despite the fact that her family never put any pressure on her, she felt compelled to succeed.

Safina has always aspired to be well-known and successful. As a result, her loving family created the ideal setting for her to achieve her goal.

Safina began playing when she was seven years old, competing in children’s tournaments.

She learned important methods as a child that she would later use in her job.

When she was 12 years old, her family relocated to Valencia, Spain. She speaks Spanish, Russian, and Tartar, her native tongue.

Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis, and Lindsay Davenport were among Safina’s childhood heroes.

Facts of Dinara Safina

Net Worth and Residence

Dinara Safina’s net worth is estimated to be $8 million.

Dinara spends a quiet life in Monte Carlo, Monaco, with her little dog. The Russian-born has lived in many different countries and cities during her life.

Interestingly, she says that moving from place to place doesn’t bother her a bit!

Instead, Dinara enjoys the opportunity of being in a new city and making a new home there. She also enjoys learning the languages and cultures of the city.

As a fun fact, Dinara enjoys a simple yet subtle life. Additionally, she stated that she is not a big party person and is often at home doing nothing. Well, she often starts her day with some cottage cheese or oatmeal.

For lunch, she usually munches carbs and some vegetables.

Tennis Professionalism

Safina made her WTA tournament debut in the main draw in 2002 and gradually rose through the rankings to the top 100.

Later that year, in the US Open, she made her grand slam debut. Safina won her maiden Wimbledon match in 2005 but fell to Lindsay Davenport in the third round.

In the quarterfinals of the 2005 US Open, she defeated world number one Maria Sharapova.

In 2006, she became the first woman to enter the top ten singles rankings.

Safina represented Russia in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She beat world number one Jelena Jankovic in three sets in the quarterfinals.

Dinara became the first person in the history of the WTA circuit to win three different reigning world no. 1 players in the same year.

Safina reached the top of the WTA rankings in April 2009. She is also the second Russian to reach the top spot, following Maria Sharapova.

Her performance at Wimbledon was noticeably lower than in previous years, prompting criticism of her number one ranking. Serena Williams, for example, openly mocked her credibility.

Safina also lost her number one status to Serena Williams in October, only to reclaim it two weeks later.

Playing a major sport will surely have a negative impact on your health. This was a back ailment for Dinara (stress fracture).

Her back problem became so severe that she had to withdraw from events and take pauses during matches.

Dinara pulled out of a number of matches in late 2009 and early 2010 owing to a back issue.

She dropped a few matches after returning for the clay season, sliding to number 20. She also pulled out of Wimbledon later.

She also withdrew from the rest of the matches due to a back injury after losing most and winning some in early 2011.

Marat Safin first announced Safina’s retirement from professional tennis on October 7, 2011.

Later, Safina herself tweeted that she hadn’t made up her mind. She announced her retirement only a day after the finals of the Madrid Open in 2014.

She won 12 WTA singles titles and four ITF singles titles during her career. She has also won nine WTA doubles and three ITF doubles.

The pressure to succeed

While her back injury was a big factor in her decision to retire, Dinara has freely stated that her stress as a player had a large impact on her choice in the years following.

Safina has won numerous crucial matches throughout her career, but she has yet to win a grand slam.

Serena earned three grand slam wins in 2009, but Dinara rose to number one. Dinara was closely scrutinized as a result of this.

Other players in tennis history have risen to the top without ever winning a grand slam (Jelena Jankovic and Karolina Pliskova).

Dinara, on the other hand, suffered a lot of unwarranted hatred. This added to her stress, causing her performance to suffer even more.

Dinara is also known for her difficulty to cope with nerves during competitions. In her career, this superstar has lost so many major finals without ever winning a set. Dinara has spoken up about it in the media.

Safina felt so pressed to win before any finals that all she could think about was whether she would win. She was never really immersed in the game.

She became quite frightened as a result, and her performance suffered. This, according to our girl, was the primary reason for her losing the finals in 2008 and 2009.

Following Retirement

After retirement, many athletes struggle to find something exciting and engaging to do, and the majority of them become depressed.

Following her major decision, Safina took a break and relocated to New York. She spent some time there organizing her thoughts before heading to Moscow.

She has also mentioned that she misses the adrenaline rush of tennis.

After all, it was her primary source of happiness. She found it challenging to find something that could replace how tennis made her feel.

Safina also battled depression during that period. Going from world number one to ‘nobody’ can be a difficult change for everyone.

After retiring, she realized her competitors, people from the tennis world, the media, and everyone was turning their backs on her.

New beginnings

But Dinara is a fighter, way ahead on exploring new opportunities and possibilities. She used this time to complete her education.

In fact, Safina finished her law degree in 2019, which is one hell of an accomplishment!

Moreover, she also worked as a commentator on a sports channel.

It is improbable that she’ll come back on tour. But that doesn’t mean she can’t play tennis in other ways! Safina wants to coach players to reach their maximum potential.

She has worked with the Russian federation. She hopes to be a coach on the WTA tour.

All said and done, Dinara enjoyed every moment of tennis and didn’t feel like she missed out on much.

Nevertheless, she agrees that she would enjoy the game more and stress less if she could do everything over again.

Relationships

There is almost no information about the private life of Dinara Safina.

During her career, she had no time for relationships between her matches, training, and tour.

Now that she is relatively less busy, she might be dating someone! But she has not talked openly about it.

Her social media timeline also has not given any such hint of a possible lover.

On Valentine’s day 2021, she posted a photo of her dog, captioning it ‘Happy Valentine’s Day.’

The only guy she ever posts a photo of is her brother, Marat Safin.

Evidently, the siblings share a very close bond. Safina doesn’t leave any chance to praise how lucky she is for having Marat as her brother.

Marat and Dinara are the only brother-sister pair to have held the number 1 ranking ever if you are not aware already.

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Social Networking

Dinara regularly posts her personal achievements, updates, and brand collaborations on her social media.

One memorable collaboration she did recently is with Mishka shopping.

The proceeds from the sale from Mishka shopping were sent to a children’s hospice.

Furthermore, Dinara is fond of writing her thoughts on tennis in the form of extended captions on social media.

She has also gained quite a lot of following on her accounts.

Her Instagram has 28.4k followers and her Twitter has 15.5k followers.