Dinara Safina Through to The Semi-finals of Slovenia Open 2009
Dinara Safina stays on course to win her first Slovenia Open tournament in Portoroz. Dinara won 6-3, 6-0 against Maria Elena Camerin although the score doesn’t reflect what really happened on court.
Dinara first went ahead and Camerin seemed tight to me – she wasn’t hitting well and especially if she went for her shots she missed a lot.
But eventually Maria Elena relaxed, found her rhythm and broke back. Dinara was at 3:2 in the first set struggling to with her form on the forehand (her backhand always works 
) and I liked how Dinara switched into lower gear and rallied a few games with Camerin to find her feel again.
Of course, she could afford to do that against Camerin as Maria Elena cannot blow Dinara off the court with winners. Dinara found her forehand again and routinely finished the set.
Safina then switched one gear higher at the start of second set and Camerin couldn’t follow the pace at all. There were still a few hard fought games but it just so happens that Dinara won them all.
A good match for Dinara and she is slowly raising her game as the tournament progresses.
The second match on the center court in Portoroz was between Petra Martic from Croatia and Sara Errani from Italy. Petra is only 18 years old and she received a Wild Card for this tournament.
Sara Errani on the other hand won the Slovenia Open in 2008 and is the defending champion. The interesting thing about this match was the contrast between two players.
Petra is 181 cm tall, very slim and elegant and hits the ball fairly flat and fast. Sara is 164 cm tall, very strong and plays with lots of spin.
Petra’s tactics was quite clear; trying to vary the game by mixing up spins, slices and drop shots and trying to bring Errani to the net.
Sara’s tactics was to keep the ralies long, play with high loopy top spin shots to avoid direct power hitting with Petra and occasionally attack with a surprise forehand fast ball.
Petra ‘s game plan was in theory good, but in reality Petra is not skilled enough yet to execute it well. Her drop shots were too high, her slices were too slow and her net game still needs a lot of experience.
Sara’s plan on the other hand was something that Sara plays all the time. Her forehand reminded me of Nadal’s and so did her fighting and perseverance.
Sara’s serve is very interesting as she tosses the ball way behind her back and tries to get as much kick on the ball as possible. The courts here in Portoroz are very bouncy so kick serves really jump very high.
The score in the end was 6-1, 6-1 for Errani although the tennis was quite interesting because of the different tactics and how both girls tried to impose their game style on the other.
All the quarter-final matches were very one sided today; they all finished in two sets and none of the losing girls reached 4 games in any of the sets played.
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