Dinara Safina fought hard to win her first Slovenia Open WTA tournament against Sara Errani with the final score of 6-7, 6-1, 7:5.

Dinara Safina wins Slovenian Open 2009 / Photo by HRVOJE POLAN/AFP/Getty Images

Errani proved to be an extremely tough nut to crack as she played Nadal style by looping high top spin shots on her forehand and hitting fast flat shots on her backhand. She is also very fast and brings back more balls than most girls on the tour.

This made Safina go for more and more and eventually she would aim too close to the lines and play too fast and the unforced errors count was going higher and higher.

Safina requested coaching a few times in the match and Zeljko Krajan, her coach, was telling her a few interesting tactical choices. The Slovenian TV was broadcasting his coaching on TV so we could her what he was saying.

He wanted Safina to get out of the backhand cross court rallies with Errani and play soon to Errani forehand (by playing down the line) from which she would most likely get a shorter higher ball which Safina could take inside the court and hit on the rise. (more…)

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. (more…)