World No.2 Dinara Safina still hasn't recovered from the back injury which has been bothering her for months, and the 23-year-old Russian will skip the $2,000,000 Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships which starts next week.

Because of the same injury, Safina withdrew from last year's Sony Ericsson Championships and this season's Australian Open.

Safina is hoping to return to competition in March, to play the $4.5-million BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. (source: Dinara Safina's official website, photo by chascow)

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World No.58 Maria Kirilenko, who took out Maria Sharapova in the first round of the Australian Open, reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal through Dinara Safina’s misfortune of a recurrent back injury.

The second-seeded Safina retired down 5-4 in the opening set of the fourth-round match, with the same low back injury that forced her out of the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha at the end of last season.

Safina’s injury is extremely painful: "I just cannot move anywhere. I mean, the physio asked me to lie on the table. I said, I cannot lie. I cannot make any movement. Whatever I try to move, it hurts terribly." And to make things worse, Safina thinks she may have even worsened the injury because she continued to play the match.

Kirilenko, on the other hand, has problems of her own. She turns 23 on Monday, but will have to postpone her birthday celebrations: "I don't want to get drunk before my next match. It's going to be difficult for me to play then."

Unseeded Kirilenko will play China's Zheng Jie, also unseeded, in the quarterfinals. Zheng holds a 4-1 head-to-head lead over the Russian. (photo via Australian Open)

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As you can see, Safina is wearing simple and sporty tennis clothes, without glitter and too many details. That sort of style suits the Russian perfectly and even though Safina's 2009 outfits brought nothing we hadn't seen before, they were very nice.

I especially enjoyed watching energetic Safina in yellow and black at the Australian Open. Also, the white Wimbledon outfit that I liked on Wozniacki, looked good on Safina as well.

What do you think of the outfits adidas chooses for Safina? Do you like her simple style or do you prefer something more extraordinary?

What’s your favorite outfit Safina wore in 2009?

(photos via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, azzurri_nr1, Tennis Forum)

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It seemed insane when Dinara Safina entered the Brisbane International, because just shortly before entering the tournament the Russian had stated that because of her back injury she might skip the Australian Open, which is after the Brisbane event in the calendar.

So now it comes as no surprise that Safina pulled out of the January 3-10 event, due to the back injury which forced her out of the Sony Ericsson Championships at the end of the 2009 season. (source: AFP, photo: chascow)

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Ana Ivanovic will supposedly wear this orange adidas adilibria dress, which has a yellow version as well.

Jelena Jankovic may be looking like a lemon and strawberry ice-cream if this is really her new ANTA outfit.

Dinara Safina will stick with classic adidas look.

Here's Stella McCartney's collection for Caroline Wozniacki for the 2010 season.

Maria Sharapova will again sport an extraordinary Nike design with a lot of details.

Jacob, thank you for telling me about these previews! We'll see what the players will eventually wear. Even if these were confirmed outfits, last-minute surprises are common in the world of tennis fashion. (sources: Tennis Forum, Caro Wozniacki)

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"The Brisbane International will be the perfect tournament to get some tough match practice in the lead-up to the Australian Open. I am looking forward to the challenge and I cannot wait to get there," said Safina who handed Serena Williams the year-end No.1 ranking by withdrawing from the Sony Ericsson Championships.

Safina joins Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Ana Ivanovic in a very strong women's field at the Brisbane International. (source: ESPN, photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

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Dinara Safina

Safina said the bone structure in her lower back is "starting to fracture", and that she has had the injury for three months. Today, she couldn't handle the pain.

Jankovic lost her first round-robin match to Victoria Azarenka, so this present from Safina must have been welcome.

Safina regained the top-ranking on Monday, but she will again hand it to Serena Williams, who will finish a season at No.1 for the second time in her career.

Earlier in the day, Caroline Wozniacki beat Victoria Azarenka 1-6 6-4 7-5, recovering from a first set blowout and saving a match point in the third set. Azarenka was leading by a break four times in the decider, but Wozniacki fought back each time. It was Wozniacki's first match at the Sony Ericsson Championships ever. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

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Once again top-ranked player Dinara Safina did a photoshoot for Harper's Bazaar, wearing smoky eyes and pretty much vamp clothes.

How do you like Safina's modeling?

(via Forty Deuce)

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This is hilarious. Dinara Safina will be No.1 during the Sony Ericsson Championships, returning to the top spot after Serena Williams took it over this week.

Last year’s Sony Ericsson Championships points will come off the Monday of this year’s Sony Ericsson Championships points, which will make Safina 155 points ahead of Williams.

Having in mind all the pressure and criticism Safina had to face for not living up to the role of being the No.1 in the eyes of many, funnily, the Russian is now seen as being in an unfortunate situation. I love the following remarks made at tennis blog called Forty Deuce.

Commentator LadyRain said:

Aww. Poor Dina. All this after she worked so hard to not be number one. She really can't catch a break.

Commentator TheSkinny said:

Now imagine, she ends the year No.1 *shock* That would guarantee for an off-season full of trash talking!

I like Dinara, but the off-season is too long and needs some spice!

(photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

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The world No.1 Safina, who is currently spending her 25th week on top of the rankings, lost to No.226-ranked Zhang Shuai 7-5 7-6(5), which is the biggest on-paper upset in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour history. Ouch!

Zhang is now the lowest-ranked player ever to beat a reigning No.1, bettering the No.188 ranking held by Julie Coin as she upset Ana Ivanovic at the 2008 US Open.

The 20-year-old Zhang has won 12 ITF titles, but has never before this week’s China Open won a main draw match on Tour.

"It's very disappointing, I'd like to take a break now. I'm very upset with myself," said Safina, who had an early break in both sets and a set point in the second set.

Last week Safina also lost in the second round of a tournament, falling to 132nd-ranked Chang Kai-Chen at the Toray Pan Pacific Open.

In addition, Safina will lose the No.1 ranking to Serena Williams, if Serena wins her match against Ekaterina Makarova on Tuesday.

The other upset of the day happened when world No.39 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova scored her second straight win over Venus Williams. The 18-year-old Pavlyuchenkova defeated the seven-time Grand Slam champion last week at the Toray Pan Pacific Open, and today at the China Open the Russian took out the world No.3 American with a score 3-6 6-1 6-4, in the second round as well. (via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: Jean-Sebastien Marceau)

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