Dinara Safina to Miss Rest of Year Due to Injury

By Parvez Fatteh, TMO, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

File:  Safina bites her Rome 2009 victory trophy.

Former world number one women’s tennis player, Dinara Safina, will not play again this year due to unrelenting low back back pain, the Russian announced on her official website this week.

She stated the following on DinaraSafina.com, “Hey everybody. I’m sorry to report that my back is still acting up and I will not be able to play at least until the end of the year. Thanks for your support and I will update you on my status when I have more information.”

The 25-year-old Russian sounded just as pessimistic about returning when she addressed the Russian media earlier this year.  “I don’t know how long my time out is going to last because I don’t want to torture myself and my body anymore,” she was quoted as saying. She had already missed much of last year due to injury as well as poor form. She finally made a comeback at the Australian Open in January of this year, but was blitzed in the first round in embarrassing fashion 6-0, 6-0 by Kim Clijsters in the very first round. Afterward, Safina, even at that time, expressed thoughts of quitting tennis.
Safina is the younger sister of former men’s number one Marat Safin. And the two of them are the only brother and sister pair to have both reached the world number one spot in professional tennis. While her brother was a Grand Slam winner, however, Dinara reached the number one spot without ever winning a Grand Slam tournament. She reached three Grand Slam finals, the French Open in 2008 and 2009 and the Australian Open in 2009. But she came up short in all three of them.

Now she has another mountain to climb as she tries to regain her health, regain her confidence, and regain her spot in the rankings.

13-32