"First my left knee, now my left hand? WTF!"Dinara Safina knew something we didn't know - she was playing with pain.
After easily defeating Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-4 in LA, the world's top lady baller revealed she's been competing with pain in the patella of her left leg beginning at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix back in April through Wimbledon and had been taking anti-inflammatory meds along the way. The pain was so bad a times she would "see stars" every time she would bend.
Dinara explained why she never revealed the information publicly saying,
I don't like to find excuses. This is my personality. On the court, I will never call trainer if I have a headache. If I call for somebody, it must be really bad.
I can appreciate that reasoning and it could explain why she lost so badly in big matches. But why has Dinara decided to reveal this information now? Is it to "explain" some of her recent, crushing defeats at the majors and rebuff the claims she doesn't have what it takes to be a "true" No. 1?
Let's be honest, though. By her own account she wasn't dealing with this patella issue in January during the Oz Open when she couldn't serve her way out of a corner and was routed by Serena Williams in the final. But it certainly couldn't help the serving issues having her left knee, which is used to push off during serving for a righty, get wonky.
Dinara isn't a great mover and her serve, like Shrieka's, is vital and sets up the rest of her game. Without it, she's toast. However, now that the issue is resolved it'll be interesting to see how her game evolves during the US Open Series and whether her on-court issues were due more to her knee problems or to her shaky mentality.
UPDATE: Congrats to D for becoming the first lady baller to qualify for the year-end WTA Championships!
(image via getty)
This patella thing sounds like some Italian food... I feel pain in my ravioli.
ReplyDeleteIf she really doesn't like finding excuses, then Rich wouldn't have needed to post this post...
ReplyDeleteSo what happened in Paris and Wimbledon, the same knee injury. Funny how these injuries always come about after a beatdown by one of the Williamses. Same thing with Sharapova. She gets beaten to a pulp at the AO07, blames it on shoulder issues, comes back the next year wins the AO08 without dropping a set, then goes on 10 month sabbatical due to shoulder injuries from 2007 and now is on a comeback trail. Clearly Dinara did not remember that we all watched her meltdowns in the various major finals. And they talk about Serena being ungracious. Whatever
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Dinara is making excuses doesn't mean that Serena isn't ungracious. And I can't stand Sharapova, but do you really think that she went on a "10 month sabbatical" as an excuse for AO7? That's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteMeli