Dinara Safina to play cautiously in Stuttgart: “My back injury is the worst you can get”

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Dinara Safina at Australian OpenDinara Safina hasn’t competed since withdrawing from the fourth round of the Australian Open in January and resumed training only on April 3. The Russian former world No.1 entered the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart this week, the tournament at which she was runner-up last year, but will have to watch the state of her back closely in order for the potentially career-threatening injury not to reappear.

“Everybody, including my brother Marat (Safin), told me to take my time but it was really difficult because I wanted to come back on court so badly,” said the 24-year-old Safina, seeded second at Stuttgart. “Right now I feel safe and comfortable, but I need to watch closely that it stays that way.”

Safina is worried that the injury, which started bothering her in late 2009, could have a serious impact on her future: “My back injury is the worst you can get, because if things go wrong again, that might be it for my professional career altogether.” (source: Yahoo, photo: Upali Wickramasinghe)

10 COMMENTS

  1. Lets hope her back holds out, will be a real shame if it goes again and possibly ends her career.

    Couldn’t possibly wish any harm to someone that likes cakes as much as she does!! 🙂

  2. I think she should rather wait than get injured again. She was not careful enough in the past.I’m pretty sure that is she would be OK now had she not played the Aussie.

  3. Dina should indeed wait until her condition stabilizes. I hope she is over-exaggerating as her retirement would be a shame! I became her fan during RG 2008 in her match against Maria Sharapova! That was an epic match! From then I tried to follow all her other matches…I heard Ana lost today in Stuttgart! I am really questioning her come-back now. I’m hoping, but the hope is dying out :-(!

    I love Ana, but come on…get your game together for once!! It’s been like 2 years already! Her age should not be talked about because a tennis career is very short and she should focus while she is in tennis, and have fun after!

    What do you guys think? I mean, I think she should start playing smaller tournaments to get her confidence level up!! But I don’t even know if match play is the issue…maybe it is something else??

  4. “It was a tough loss but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I have to be positive,” said Ana.

    “I’m trying to make every shot perfect and it’s just not coming every time. I just need to relax more.”

    “A few mistakes here and there are costing me matches. I just have to be patient.”

    I think I have heard this one too many times from her! “It’s ok, next time” is her approach and I think that is the problem! She has to live in the now and play in the now!

    did anyone watch the match? How did she play?

  5. I didn’t watch the match, but the thing you asked about what she should do, I think she should either not care AT ALL what everyone else thinks and not care at all about how many matches she has lost. Since that is not possible, apparently, she should take a long break, but a really long one, like at least a year. I see it like that…

  6. “Since that is not possible, apparently, she should take a long break, but a really long one, like at least a year. I see it like that…”

    OMG someone agrees with me!!

    Has this ever happened before?? I’m shocked! 😉

  7. Tony, haha. But actually, Curtis’ suggestion in one of the later posts on this blog that Ana should enter small tournaments could be a good one as well. It would probably give her some wins, she would get some practice and confidence. What do you think?

  8. I think Ana definitely needs to stay positive and ignore the media. But also she needs to focus. I think it would maybe help her to play more doubles and less singles for a while to alleviate the pressure and gain more confidence. For example, Agniezska is a great doubles player but also very successful in singles. So maybe this kind of balance can make a difference in Ana’s case as well.

  9. Marine, remember Ana played doubles in the middle of last year? Don’t know why she didn’t play doubles more. However, you probably know she teamed up with Petkovic in Stuttgart and lost in the first round.

  10. Yeah, that was not the best start. But still, she should give doubles a chance. Maybe if she teamed up with Radwanska that could work better.

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