Dinara Safina Triumphs in Doubles in Malaysia

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

Things are finally looking up in the tennis career of Dinara Safina. The Russian former-number-one has seen her career spiral downward over the past year. And she experienced a horrid beginning to 2011 as well with a series of first round lopsided losses that also resulted in her moving on to her third personal coach in a year. But she began the Malaysian Open with a first round singles win that was her first singles victory in several months. Her singles experience ended in the second round, however, with a loss to the Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova. But that loss does not look so bad considering the fact that Safarova is ranked number 35 in the world and she made it all the way to the finals of the tournament before losing a tight three set affair to Jelena Dokic. And the good news for Safina doesn’t stop there, as she went on to win the ladies’ doubles division. She and her partner, Kakakhstan’s Galina Voskoboeva, won in the finals against the team of Thailand’s Noppawan Lertcheewakarn and Australia’s Jessica Moore by the score of 7-5, 2-6, and 10-5 in a super tie-breaker. This may be just what it takes to restore Safina’s confidence. She watched her brother, former men’s number one Marat Safin, rebound from tough stretches in his career. So she just may have a good example to follow.

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