Now that she's no longer in the shadow of her older brother, Safina can teach us a lot about tactics and confidence.
1. Take control
If you want to master the art of putting your opponent on the defensive early in a point, watch Dinara Safina. When the Russian has a chance to take a cut at a ball, she doesn’t pass it up, especially during her service games. Safina can drive flat backhands into either corner and usually hits her forehand, which has more topspin, deep in the court. Both strokes allow her to take control of rallies from the outset. While club players probably can’t match Safina’s athleticism, they can learn from her approach. Many recreational players tend to rally without much thought about developing the point. Instead, they wait for obvious openings or errors from their opponents. Next time you’re on the court, approach your first shot in a rally with purpose and try to push your opponent slightly out of position. If you can get a jump on your opponents, they won’t have time to get a jump on you.
2. Hit high and heavy
There’s a lot of power in women’s tennis today, sometimes too much, in my opinion. One shot I’d like to see more of the top women use is the high topspin roller. Safina has a good one, especially on her forehand. Instead of smashing every ball, she sometimes hits one with more air under it. A roller—a deep, medium-pace high ball—has a couple advantages: It bounces high, which takes opponents out of their comfort zones, and it buys you time. This is especially important for a tall player like Safina. She’s not slow, but she’s also not the fastest player on tour, and her strokes, because of her size, are long. She needs slightly more time to recover from one shot to the next. The roller can be a good approach shot, too, as many opponents prefer to hit passing shots off approaches that have more pace.
3. Get in shape, build confidence
Like her older brother, Marat Safin, Safina has let many matches get away from her because she’s emotional on court. But in the last year, I’ve noticed fewer outbursts and meltdowns. A big reason for this is Safina’s improved physical fitness. In April, she started working with fitness trainer Dejan Vojnovic. In past years, Safina was by no means out of shape, but now she’s in the best shape of her life. Hard work and training make you feel like you deserve to play well and deserve to win. That builds confidence. It’s also a nice feeling when you step on the court and know that a match won’t be more difficult than a practice session. If you work hard enough off court, on-court adversity won’t be as difficult to overcome.