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!89264551 by Pete Bodo
There must be a higher purpose in Dinara Safina's life than serving as part of Serena Williams's fitness regimen (Safina has been her heavy bag, to borrow from the sweet science), or the object of scorn and derision that might be better directed at the WTA computer-ranking system. For as most of you know, and Safina is never allowed to forget, she earned the No. 1 ranking in April without having bagged a Grand Slam title, and she hasn't let it go despite two majors - won by others - having played out in the interim.
You might say that Safina hasn't advanced her own cause by failing to bag any of this year's majors, or enhanced her credibility with the way she lost in them: She was simply crushed by Williams in the Australian Open final, fell prone to anxiety in a severely disappointing loss to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the championship match in Paris, and Safina was humiliated by Venus Williams in the semifinals of Wimbledon.You'd think the poor girl can't play, and at times on major occasions that suspicion is abetted by Safina.
On the other hand, the last WTA No. 1 (Jelena Jankovic - surely you remember the name?) blew herself up just minutes after earning the No. 1 ranking; by contrast, Safina is an Amazon-grade warrior. I can think of a few players who wouldn't exactly mind being in her shoes - two Grand Slam finals and a semi in the last three majors.
Safina won again on Sunday, in Portoroz. She beat Sara Errani in a three-set roller coaster ride after losing the first set tiebreaker. After winning, she recited an all-too familiar script: "After losing the first set, I started to play exactly how I had to. But then when I was up 2-0, 30-0 in the third set, suddenly I lost my game. I got tight. That's why it was so complicated. When I won the match it was a relief. I really wanted it. These tough matches give you confidence and I hope with this I can go to the States and play my best tennis there."
Three words Safina should have engraved on her forehead (for our benefit), or on her wrist for her own: It's a process.
That is, taking a place at the top of the game and holding it is a process for anyone not named Williams, or Roger Federer, Chris Evert or John McEnroe. Champions who mature relatively late (think Martina Navratilova, Patrick Rafter, even, in some ways Ivan Lendl, Andre Agassi and Justine Henin) can tell you that unless you're blessed with a combination of extraordinary drive, surpassing talent, and a level head, the key ingredient in becoming a Grand Slam champion is steady nerves - more precisely, the ability to keep your level extremely high while resisting the chorus of critics who suggest that winning a major is one task too many for you to handle.
So the more sanguine way to look at Safina's adventures since the end of 2008 is that she's been "gathering information." And everything we know about Safina, from her earliest days on the tour, suggests that she's had an awful lot of information to gather, beginning with the intelligence on how to emerge from her famous brother Marat's shadow to achieve stardom, while lacking some of the natural advantages he enjoyed. Those advantages include a game that even in proportionate terms is much bigger than Dinara's, a dangerously effective indifference to the so-called "pressure" of expectations, and a type of personal charisma that somehow greases the skids of life.
I mean, it's probably much easier to play second-fiddle to a stud like Marat, while no pony-tailed little hottie can be very pleased to suffer a bludgeoning at the hands of beady-eyed and often downright gawky Dinara. Sometimes those kinds of things count, although they probably shouldn't.
There's a flip side to Safina's poor defense of her No. 1 ranking in those train wrecks dressed up as major finals. She's endured those terrible whippings without spiraling off into deep depression or chucking her racquets into the Thames and entering a nunnery. Something Marat said in a teleconference the other day is pertinent here: "She's really competitive and really tough girl. She wants to crack it down (win a major), it just takes a bit of time."
Time, of course, is the one thing that nobody wants to grant any player who seems to perform below the standard of his or her ranking. This, partly, is what made life so difficult for Jankovic in 2009. The table was set for her personal banquet in Melbourne, but when she showed up - so bent on proving herself a worthy No. 1 that she over-trained - she was so nervous she couldn't lift the fork to her mouth. Over the ensuing months, she got a lot of food of food on her shirt and lap, but she's been no more capable of finding her mouth than an infant in a high chair.
Safina's history has been dramatically different. She's recovered from those notionally devastating losses by holding on to what she has - confidence, drive, attitude and even ranking-wise - as she continues to gather information. This is something that only destined champions seem able to do, and it suggests that despite the momentary, bitter disappointments, her wounds are like those of a teen-ager who mildy mutilates herself out of boredom, or anxiety. This is a common rite of passage, as any reformed Goth princess can tell you.
And as much as the pundits and critics enjoy denigrating a talented or highly ranked player who chokes away significant opportunities (and trust me, it can be an exquisitely pleasurable if downright mean indulgence), a player is only broken by himself. The players who stay the course almost always prevail. And in tennis, staying the course means winning. For winning begets winning. Safina may have struggled in Portoroz against Errani, but she won. Again. Maybe having won despite struggling against the over-gunned Errani, instead of tacking up another routine 2-and-3 win, will be of greater long-term value to Safina.
Patience is an especially handy virtue for someone in Safina's shoes, and she seems to have it. Consistency is another key to long-term success. This she has as well, and it's of a different order of magnitude than the consistency of all those perennial semifinalists and finalists who hover around the upper reaches of the Top 10. Safina wins tournaments consistently, and that neutralizes to some degree the uncomfortable fact that her most formidable rival isn't able to grind the heel of a stiletto into Safina's heart often enough to break her spirit. Safina may never beat Serena, but she's beaten some comparably unnerving demons and goblins and they're always a bigger enemy. One rival at a time.
When Marat was asked if his sister needed to make any major changes, or change her way of thinking in order to bag that elusive first major, he replied: "It's more that it just takes some time. She been unexpected the No. 1 in the world, because not many people really believe that she would become one day, and finally she became. But the next step, maybe she was not really ready for that, now she's been through a few finals and she's more experienced and the next one will be hers. I'm pretty sure sooner or later she gonna make it. Once she gonna crack one down, first one, and then much more will come."
Given Safina's relative youth (she's 23) and the volatile state of the WTA Tour, it's hard to argue with that sober analysis. Marat doesn't even mind the sniping that's gone on, saying of Serena's recent comments:
"It's okay. It's a girls' matter. It's just girls talk. Well, they're two big players. Serena is more experienced and she been on tour much more time. She been out there for much longer time. My sister, she's a new one, basically new No. 1 in the world. The rivalry, the next time they're gonna play, it's gonna be a nice match. Serena, she is a nice girl, but it's her own fault (that she's not No. 1). They are tough actors, and it's what happens. But I think it's good to see that it happens on the tour that they are fighting for No. 1 and giving a little bit of trouble to each other, but without any harm to each other."
In other words, Marat thinks his sister is a big girl, who's capable of taking care of herself. And apart from the hardship Dinara's had clearing the final career hurdle in her path, Safina's been proving him right.