Dinara Safina Announces Retirement

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

Dinara Safina poses with a trophy in 2008.  AP Photo/The Canadian Press/Jacques Boissinot

Former women’s world number one tennis player Dinara Safina has announced her retirement from professional tennis after failing to recover from a serious back injury. The Tatar Russian has not competed on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour since May of 2011 and has spent the last three years trying to achieve the level of health and fitness needed to resume her playing career. However, she has had to concede defeat, calling it quits just nine days after her 28th birthday.

Safina announce, “I decided to withdraw from any official announcements until now as I was still hoping to overcome my back injury. But this moment has finally come. I played the last professional tournament of my career here in Madrid and that’s why I think it’s the best place for me to quit the game.” Safina will participate in the award ceremony of the WTA Madrid Open tournament, where she has won one of her titles in 2009. Safina’s farewell ceremony will also take place in Madrid.

Safina won a total of 12 WTA Tour titles. She also won an Olympic silver medal in Beijing in 2008. And she was a runner-up in three different Grand Slam finals, failing to break through with a Grand Slam victory during her career. She is the sister of men’s tennis star Marat Safin, who has also retired.

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