another disappointing year for former world number one dinara safina. it seems like she hasn't recover from the back injury that started plaguing her in cincinnati of last year. she stumbled in the third round of the us open of the same year. retired from her match against jelena jankovic in the year end championships. she announced her comeback at brisbane but decided not to play. in medibank, she reached the quarterfinals, but lost to eventual champion elena dementieva. she showed some signs of getting back to her old form when she made it to the fourth round of the australian open but retired despite leading the match 5-4 against fellow russian maria kirilenko. her recurring back injury forced her to withdrew from tournaments in dubai, indian wells, and miami.
her struggle continued in the entire clay season, she lost to shahar peer in stuttgart in the quaterfinals, and in the first round of rome and madrid where she was the defending champion. in the french open, where she was a two time runner up, she lost in the first round to japanese veteran kimiko date-krumm. this caused her to drop to no. 20.
she withdrew from wimbledon after losing again in the first round at 's-hertogenbosch, her warm-up tournament before the said grand slam.
last 2008, she bested other female tennis players for the us open series. winning the titles in los angels and montreal. but 2010 showed a different dinara safina. in stanford, where she was given a wildcard, she lost to kimiko date-krumm for the second straight time. dinara ended a six match losing streak by beating alona bondarenko in the first round at san diego but fell to agnieszka radwanska of poland in the second round. her next tournament was in cincinnati where she was the runner up last year. her first opponent was roberta vinci, whom she defeated. she faced kim clijster in the second round whom she defeated last year but this time it was the belgian that bested the russian. her ranking dropped from world number 35 to number 70, due to her inability to defend her points. in montreal, where she was the champion last 2008, she defeated world number 36 andrea petkovic, nadia petrova in the second round but lost to french open champion francesca schiavone. she avenged this loss by beating the italian in new haven, she made it to the quaterfinals, but lost to maria kirilenko.
at the us open 2010, dinara suffered another first round defeat from a grand slam. she lost to daniela hantuchova in straight sets, whom she defeated last week in new haven.
truly 2010 is not her year. she lost the confidence and the urge to win. her mental toughness remains in question. and her serve still produces a number of double faults.
2010 maybe not her year, but who knows, after a long rest and relaxation, she might return to her old form. after all, 2011 season is still four months away.