In the end the Russian's greater power was too much for her and Safina broke to lead 6–5 before serving out to set up a meeting with Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium, who ended the Briton Elena Baltacha's hopes. Her 12-year-old daughter, Ana Paula, would undoubtedly have been impressed with the way her mother matched Safina in the second set, with a series of backhand winners catching the eye. "I'm feeling better this year than previous years, so hopefully this year I can go through step by step," she said.Īt 33, De los Ríos was the oldest remaining player left in the draw. In six previous visits to Wimbledon Safina has never made it past the third round but there were times against De los Ríos when she looked as if she is beginning to enjoy playing on grass a little more, and there were no signs of the left-knee injury that had hindered her in her first-round match. When they dared to speak back, the look she gave them and the accompanying murmur was priceless. There was an amusing moment in the first set when Safina, after De los Ríos had hit the line with two consecutive shots, vented anger towards her coaching team. Hard West is a Turn-Based Tactics game by CreativeForge Games for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, released in November 2015. Otherwise if I start to think what other people think, then it's not good. "I'm trying not to think what other people are thinking. "I'm trying to think about myself, what I have to do," she said. Over-complicating matters and worrying about expectations is a bad idea for most players but particularly Safina, who can be quick to get down on herself and then get away from her usual aggressive game. In each of the three, nerves have got the better of her. All that is lacking is a grand-slam victory but she was horribly nervous when losing to Kuznetsova in the final of the French Open this month, the third time she has lost a grand-slam final. She has reached the final in 13 of her past 22 tournaments, winning six of them, and in 2009 she has made six finals in her 10 tournaments. The vagaries of the ranking system are hardly Safina's fault. Safina hit No1 in April and has been by far the most consistent player in women's tennis in the past 12 months, yet she constantly has to deal with claims, including those from Serena Williams, that she is not really the No1 because she has yet to win a grand-slam title. A graveyard slot (or death slot) is a time period in which a television audience is very small compared to other times of the day, and therefore broadcast. I just thought if I win the match, I have next day the chance to play on a bigger court."īecoming the world No1 usually entitles players to preferential treatment, a reward of sorts for reaching the top of the game. If tournament directors or whatever, referees, think this way. "Of course it's not fair, but I'm not doing the schedule. "Hopefully next match I'll play on a bigger court," she said. Admittedly the new Court No2 is a fine creation with a capacity of just over 4,000, but Svetlana Kuznetsova, the French Open champion, had expressed surprise that Safina was on an outside court and there was more than a hint of a smile when the world's top-ranked player was asked whether she was affected by it.
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