PORTOROZ, Slovenia - After a week's well-earned rest, world No.1 Dinara Safina hit the practice courts in Portoroz in earnest on Saturday morning. The day before, there had been time for a short cruise on the glistening waters of the Adriatic with Slovenian star Katarina Srebotnik, before the pair traded shots on a makeshift mini-court in the main square of the historic coastal town of Piran. But the time to get serious had come.
By virtue of her ranking status Safina is, of course, the top seed at this week's Banka Koper Slovenia Open, an International series event offering prize money of $220,000. Having won the Premier-level trophies at Rome and Madrid and been runner-up at Sydney and Stuttgart as well as the recent French Open, she sat down with the press looking refreshed and ready to target a 12th career title in the next seven days.
"I've heard a lot of nice things about Portoroz," said the 23-year-old Russian, who arrives in town with a 42-9 win-loss record so far this season and is entering her 14th week in the top spot. "My coach Zeljko Krajan spoke well about the tournament, but the other girls are excited as well. I get along well with Katarina and she explained to me that it's a great tournament in a great town. It fits well in my competition schedule, so I decided to come."
And, so far, so good: "I'm amazed because I've never been here and it's a beautiful place! There's everything I need: the courts are good, the beach is close and the food is great."
The Weeks Ahead
In all of that, the courts are naturally the critical factor as Safina prepares her assault on the US Open, where she made the semis last year.
Indeed, while Safina's rise from Top 20 stalwart to world No.1 began on the clay courts of Berlin, she really hit her stride on the hardcourts of North America last summer. She easily won the US Open Series, capturing titles at Los Angeles and Montréal, and before heading to Flushing Meadows won a silver medal at the Olympics.
By the end of the season she had won her ninth Tour title at Tokyo and propelled herself to No.2 in the rankings. Having entered Berlin a lackluster 11-10 for the season, she duly went 44-7 and scored 12 Top 10 wins along the way - including three sparkling defeats of reigning world No.1s (Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova and Jelena Jankovic), a Tour first in a single year.
In that context, Portoroz provides Safina an early opportunity to acclimatize to the last major surface change of calendar in Europe, before heading to the US where she is scheduled to play in Los Angeles, Cincinnati and Toronto before heading to New York.
Another perk is that, as well as Krajan and physical trainer Ronen Bega, both of Safina's parents are able to join her at the tournament. "My mom is here already and my father will come in two or three days, so I get to spend some time with them," she smiled.
Playing To Win
Nonetheless, Safina will be all business once main draw action gets underway. Over the past 12 months or so, hard work has transformed her into a lean, mean fighting machine with devastating groundstrokes and a renewed ability to tough out matches mentally. Quite simply, she does justice to her talent by treating each tournament as though her life depends on it: Since that fateful week in Berlin she has fallen before the quarters just four times, a tremendously consistent effort.
Happy to have reached the semis at Wimbledon having never previously been past the third round - whatever the scoreline of her tough loss to Venus Williams - Safina is still eyeing a bigger prize. And, as she bids to win her first Grand Slam title after three runner-up finishes - twice at Roland Garros and at the Australian Open in January - she knows that time is on her side, for now.
Kim Clijsters became No.1 on August 11, 2003, but only won her sole Grand Slam title at the US Open in 2005. Likewise, Amélie Mauresmo ascended to No.1 on September 13, 2004 but didn't win her first Grand Slam until the Australian Open in January 2006, at the age of 25.
As it did for those two hugely respected champions, Safina's moment shall surely come. As she noted after Wimbledon, "Yes, I haven't won one yet, but it's not the end of the world." Time will tell whether Portoroz goes down in history as the low-key first step of a perfect preparation.
