Dinara Safina career statistics

This is a list of the main career statistics of retired, Russian professional tennis player, Dinara Safina. Throughout her career, Safina won twelve WTA singles titles including three Tier I singles titles at the 2008 Qatar Telecom German Open, Rogers Cup and Toray Pan Pacific Open respectively; one Premier Mandatory singles title at the 2009 Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open and one Premier 5 singles title at the 2009 Internazionali BNL d'Italia. She was also the runner-up at the 2008 French Open and the 2009 Australian Open and French Open as well as a silver medalist in singles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Safina was also an accomplished doubles player, winning nine WTA doubles titles including one grand slam doubles title with Nathalie Dechy at the 2007 US Open, one WTA Tier I doubles title with Elena Vesnina at the 2008 Pacific Life Open and three consecutive doubles titles at the Brisbane International from 2006–2008. Safina achieved her career high doubles ranking of World No. 8 on May 12, 2008 and subsequently attained the No. 1 ranking in singles on April 20, 2009.

Career achievements

Safina made her main draw WTA debut at the 2002 Estoril Open, where she defeated third seed Martina Suchá^[1] en route to the semi-finals.^[2] In July of the same year, she won her first WTA singles title, as a qualifier, at the Orange Warsaw Open after her opponent, Henrieta Nagyová retired whilst down a set and 4–0. As a result, Safina entered the top 100 of the WTA Singles Rankings for the first time in her career and became the youngest Russian tennis player to win a singles title on the WTA Tour.^[3] In October 2005, Safina scored her first win over a reigning World No. 1 by defeating Maria Sharapova in three sets^[4] en route to her first Tier I semi-final at the Kremlin Cup. She eventually finished the year ranked inside the top twenty for the first time at World No. 20. The following year, Safina reached the first two grand slam quarterfinals of her career in singles at the French Open and US Open^[5] respectively, defeating Sharapova in the fourth round of the former after overcoming a 5–1 third set deficit.^[6] She also reached her first grand slam doubles final at the latter event, where she and Katarina Srebotnik lost in straight sets to Natalie Dechy and Vera Zvonareva.^[7] After a quarterfinal showing at the Luxembourg Open, Safina cracked the top ten of the WTA Rankings for the first time in her career on October 2, 2006.^[8] Highlights of Safina's 2007 season were singles^[9] and doubles^[10] titles at the Brisbane International, a finals appearance at the Tier I Family Circle Cup^[11] and winning her maiden grand slam doubles title at the US Open with Dechy, after a straight sets win over Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung in the final.^[12]

Safina (left) won three of her four meetings with Elena Dementieva in 2008, including their first in Berlin, an event which Safina later called "the key to my tennis life".^[13]

Safina enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2008. She compiled a disappointing singles win–loss record of 11–10 to start the season^[14] but won her third consecutive doubles title at the Brisbane International with Ágnes Szávay^[15] and her first and only Tier I doubles title at the Pacific Life Open with compatriot, Elena Vesnina, during the same period.^[16] Safina began her singles recovery by claiming her first Tier I singles title at the Qatar Telecom German Open, defeating World No. 1 Justine Henin,^[17] fifth seed Serena Williams,^[17] future World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka^[18] and seventh seed Elena Dementieva in the final.^[19] She later commented that the tournament had been "the key to her tennis life"^[13] as she had "felt completely lost before that tournament".^[13] At the French Open, Safina defeated World No. 1 Maria Sharapova^[20] and seventh seed Elena Dementieva^[21] in consecutive rounds after rallying from a set, 5–2 and a match point down in both matches;^[20][21] before overcoming fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets^[22] to reach the first grand slam singles final of her career, where she lost in straight sets to the second seed, Ana Ivanovic.^[23] After a less impressive grass court season, during which she reached her second (and last) career singles final on grass at the Ordina Open,^[24] Safina embarked on a fifteen match winning streak, winning singles titles in Los Angeles^[25] and Montréal^[26] respectively before securing herself the Silver Medal in women's singles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, after a three set loss to Dementieva in the final.^[27] As a result of her strong performances in the lead-up to the US Open, Safina finished on top of the 2008 US Open Series leader board.^[28] At the final grand slam of the year, Safina advanced to her first US Open semi-final and second grand slam singles semi-final overall after a straight sets victory over sixteenth seed, Flavia Pennetta.^[29] Following the event, Safina entered the top five of the WTA Singles Rankings for the first time, rising to World No. 5.^[8] A week later, she captured her third Tier I singles title and fourth singles title of the season overall at the Toray Pan Pacific Open, dropping just four games in the final against Kuznetsova.^[30] As a result, she entered the top three of the WTA Singles Rankings for the first time in her career, rising to World No. 3.^[30] In November, Safina made her debut at the year-ending WTA Tour Championships but lost in the round robin stage.^[31] Nevertheless, she ended the year ranked World No. 3,^[8] marking her first finish in the year-end top five and top ten.

Safina began her successful 2009 season, during which she reached two grand slam singles finals and became World No. 1, at the Hopman Cup.

Safina began her 2009 season by representing Russia at the Hopman Cup alongside her brother, Marat Safin. The pair finished on top of their group by winning all three of their round robin ties and thus progressed to the final, where they lost to their seventh seeded Slovakian opponents, Dominika Cibulková and Dominik Hrbatý.^[32] The following week, Safina lost to Dementieva in her first singles final of the year at the Medibank International^[33] before defeating Alizé Cornet by winning five consecutive games and saving two match points in the third set of their fourth round encounter,^[34] en route to her first Australian Open final and second grand slam singles final overall.^[35] In April, Safina became the World No. 1 for the first time in her career after replacing Serena Williams at the top of the WTA Singles Rankings.^[36] In doing so, she became the fourth woman (after Kim Clijsters, Amélie Mauresmo and Jelena Janković) to reach the summit of the sport without first winning a grand slam singles title.^[36] Additionally, she and her brother also became the first siblings to have both reached No. 1 in the WTA and ATP singles rankings respectively.^[36] Safina then enjoyed a dominant clay court season, during which she reached the singles finals of all four of her clay court events. She began her reign as World No. 1 with a runner-up finish in Stuttgart^[37] before claiming her first (and only) Premier 5 and Premier Mandatory singles titles at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia^[38] and Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open^[39] with wins over Svetlana Kuznetsova^[38] and Caroline Wozniacki^[39] in the finals. Safina extended her winning streak to sixteen matches by reaching her third grand slam singles final and second consecutive French Open final but Kuznetsova defeated her in straight sets^[40] in the pair's third meeting in a final that year. Despite the loss, Safina went on to enjoy the best grass court season of her career to date. After reaching her third semi-final at the Ordina Open,^[41] Safina defeated former champion and seventeenth seed, Amélie Mauresmo^[42] and future finalist, Sabine Lisicki^[43] en route to her first Wimbledon semi-final where she fell in straight sets to the third seed, two-time defending champion and eventual runner-up, Venus Williams.^[44] She recovered by winning the twelfth and final singles title of her career at the Banka Koper Slovenia Open^[45] before reaching a career-best eighth singles final that season, at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters and Women's Open, where she lost to former World No. 1, Jelena Janković.^[46]

Major finals

Grand Slam finals

Singles: 3 (3 runners-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	2008	French Open	Clay	Ana Ivanovic	4–6, 3–6
Runner-up	2009	Australian Open	Hard	Serena Williams	0–6, 3–6
Runner-up	2009	French Open (2)	Clay	Svetlana Kuznetsova	4–6, 2–6

Doubles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	2006	US Open	Hard	Katarina Srebotnik	Nathalie Dechy Vera Zvonareva	6–7, 5–7
Winner	2007	US Open	Hard	Nathalie Dechy	Chan Yung-jan Chuang Chia-jung	6–4, 6–2

Olympic finals

Singles: 1 (1 silver medal)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Silver	2008	Beijing Olympics	Hard	Elena Dementieva	6–3, 5–7, 3–6

Tier I / Premier Mandatory & Premier 5 Finals

Singles: 8 (5 titles, 3 runners-up)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	2006	Rome	Clay	Martina Hingis	2–6, 5–7
Runner-up	2007	Charleston	Clay	Jelena Janković	2–6, 2–6
Winner	2008	Berlin	Clay	Elena Dementieva	3–6, 6–2, 6–2
Winner	2008	Canada (Montréal)	Hard	Dominika Cibulková	6–1, 6–2
Winner	2008	Tokyo	Hard	Svetlana Kuznetsova	6–1, 6–3
Winner	2009	Rome	Clay	Svetlana Kuznetsova	6–3, 6–2
Winner	2009	Madrid	Clay	Caroline Wozniacki	6–2, 6–4
Runner-up	2009	Cincinnati	Hard	Jelena Janković	4–6, 2–6

Doubles: 1 (1 title)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Winner	2008	Indian Wells	Hard	Elena Vesnina	Yan Zi Zheng Jie	6–1, 1–6, [10–8]

WTA career finals

Singles: 24 (12 titles, 12 runner-ups)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	July 27, 2002	Idea Prokom Open, Sopot, Poland	Clay	Henrieta Nagyová	6–3, 4–0, ret.
Winner	2.	July 13, 2003	Internazionali Femminili di Palermo, Palermo, Italy	Clay	Katarina Srebotnik	6–3, 6–4
Runner-up	1.	October 31, 2004	Fortis Championships Luxembourg, Luxembourg	Hard (i)	Alicia Molik	3–6, 4–6
Winner	3.	February 13, 2005	Open Gaz de France, Paris, France	Carpet (i)	Amélie Mauresmo	6–4, 2–6, 6–3
Winner	4.	May 15, 2005	ECM Prague Open Prague, Czech Republic	Clay	Zuzana Ondrášková	7–6(7–2), 6–3
Runner-up	2.	May 21, 2006	Internazionali BNL d'Italia, Rome, Italy	Clay	Martina Hingis	2–6, 5–7
Runner-up	3.	June 24, 2006	Ordina Open, s-'Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Michaëlla Krajicek	3–6, 4–6
Winner	5.	January 6, 2007	Brisbane International, Gold Coast, Australia	Hard	Martina Hingis	6–3, 3–6, 7–5
Runner-up	4.	April 15, 2007	Family Circle Cup, Charleston, United States	Clay	Jelena Janković	2–6, 2–6
Winner	6.	May 11, 2008	German Open, Berlin, Germany	Clay	Elena Dementieva	3–6, 6–2, 6–2
Runner-up	5.	June 7, 2008	French Open, Paris, France	Clay	Ana Ivanovic	4–6, 3–6
Runner-up	6.	June 21, 2008	Ordina Open, s-'Hertogenbosch, Netherlands (2)	Grass	Tamarine Tanasugarn	5–7, 3–6
Winner	7.	July 27, 2008	East West Bank Classic, Los Angeles, United States	Hard	Flavia Pennetta	6–4, 6–2
Winner	8.	August 3, 2008	Rogers Cup, Montréal, Canada	Hard	Dominika Cibulková	6–2, 6–1
Runner-up	7.	August 17, 2008	Summer Olympics, Beijing, China	Hard	Elena Dementieva	6–3, 5–7, 3–6
Winner	9.	September 21, 2008	Toray Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo, Japan	Hard	Svetlana Kuznetsova	6–1, 6–3
Runner-up	8.	January 16, 2009	Medibank International, Sydney, Australia	Hard	Elena Dementieva	3–6, 6–2, 1–6
Runner-up	9.	January 30, 2009	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Serena Williams	0–6, 3–6
Runner-up	10.	May 3, 2009	Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart, Germany	Clay (i)	Svetlana Kuznetsova	4–6, 3–6
Winner	10.	May 9, 2009	Internazionali BNL d'Italia, Rome, Italy	Clay	Svetlana Kuznetsova	6–3, 6–2
Winner	11.	May 17, 2009	Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, Madrid, Spain	Clay	Caroline Wozniacki	6–2, 6–4
Runner-up	11.	June 6, 2009	French Open, Paris, France (2)	Clay	Svetlana Kuznetsova	4–6, 2–6
Winner	12.	July 26, 2009	Banka Koper Slovenia Open, Portorož, Slovenia	Hard	Sara Errani	6–7(5–7), 6–1, 7–5
Runner-up	12.	August 16, 2009	Western & Southern Open, Cincinnati, United States	Hard	Jelena Janković	4–6, 2–6

Doubles: 16 (9 titles, 7 runners-up)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1.	January 6, 2003	Canberra Women's Classic, Canberra, Australia	Hard	Dája Bedáňová	Tathiana Garbin Émilie Loit	3–6, 6–3, 4–6
Runner-up	2.	January 12, 2004	Medibank International, Sydney, Australia	Hard	Meghann Shaughnessy	Cara Black Rennae Stubbs	5–7, 6–3, 4–6
Winner	1.	September 26, 2004	China Open, Beijing, China	Hard	Emmanuelle Gagliardi	Gisela Dulko María Vento-Kabchi	6–4, 6–4
Runner-up	3.	January 9, 2005	Moorilla Hobart International, Hobart, Australia	Hard	Anabel Medina Garrigues	Yan Zi Zheng Jie	4–6, 5–7
Runner-up	4.	February 7, 2005	Open GDF Suez, Paris, France	Hard (i)	Anabel Medina Garrigues	Iveta Benešová Květa Peschke	2–6, 6–2, 2–6
Runner-up	5.	February 14, 2005	Proximus Diamond Games, Antwerp, Belgium	Carpet (i)	Anabel Medina Garrigues	Cara Black Els Callens	6–3, 4–6, 4–6
Winner	2.	June 18, 2005	Ordina Open, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Anabel Medina Garrigues	Iveta Benešová Nuria Llagostera Vives	6–4, 2–6, 7–6(13–11)
Winner	3.	January 7, 2006	Brisbane International, Gold Coast, Australia	Hard	Meghann Shaughnessy	Cara Black Rennae Stubbs	6–2, 6–3
Winner	4.	February 19, 2006	Proximus Diamond Games, Antwerp, Belgium	Carpet (i)	Katarina Srebotnik	Stéphanie Foretz Michaëlla Krajicek	6–1, 6–1
Runner-up	6.	September 7, 2006	US Open, New York City, United States	Hard	Katarina Srebotnik	Nathalie Dechy Vera Zvonareva	6–7(5–7), 5–7
Winner	5.	January 6, 2007	Brisbane International, Gold Coast, Australia (2)	Hard	Katarina Srebotnik	Iveta Benešová Galina Voskoboeva	6–3, 6–4
Winner	6.	September 9, 2007	US Open, New York City, United States	Hard	Nathalie Dechy	Chan Yung-jan Chuang Chia-jung	6–4, 6–2
Runner-up	7.	October 1, 2007	Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart, Germany	Hard (i)	Chan Yung-jan	Květa Peschke Rennae Stubbs	7–6(7–5), 6–7(4–7), [2–10]
Winner	7.	January 5, 2008	Brisbane International, Gold Coast, Australia (3)	Hard	Ágnes Szávay	Yan Zi Zheng Jie	6–1, 6–2
Winner	8.	March 22, 2008	Pacific Life Open, Indian Wells, United States	Hard	Elena Vesnina	Yan Zi Zheng Jie	6–1, 1–6, [10–8]
Winner	9.	March 6, 2011	BMW Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Hard	Galina Voskoboeva	Noppawan Lertcheewakarn Jessica Moore	7–5, 2–6, [10–5]

Singles performance timeline

Only Main Draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam Tournaments and Olympic Games are included in Win–Loss records.

WTA Tour career earnings

*As of October 31, 2011

Head-to-head record against other players

Safina's win-loss record against certain players who have been ranked World No. 10 or higher is as follows:^[47]

Players who have been ranked World No. 1 are in boldface.

References