Player of the week: Dinara Safina

There has been some controversy in the last weeks about the leadership of Dinara Safina in the WTA ranking without having won any Grand Slam title. But last week in Rome, Safina showed once again that she deserves it as she was the strongest player amongst all the top players.


But the victory wasn't easy for her. After defeating Virginie Razzano in the 2nd round, Safina had to come back from a set down to overcome Chinese Jie Zheng in the 3rd round, in a match decided in the third set tiebreak, and Spanish Maria Jose Martinez in the quarters. The semifinal looked a much tougher test, as she was facing Venus Williams, whose sister Serena had claimed that she was the "real" #1. And again Safina came back after losing the first set to win the match. And in the final Safina faced fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, who had defeated her last week in Stuttgart's final. But this time Dinara was much more solid and with a great tennis defeated Kuznetsova by 6/3 6/2.


Now Dinara not only has extended her lead over Serena Williams in the WTA rankings, but also has shown that she is the strongest player on clay nowadays and therefore the big favourite to win in Roland Garros. If she does, she will get her Grand Slam title and her #1 will no longer be questioned.