Tennis News

Wading through the sea of champions set to be featured at the International Tennis Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony and watching from the sidelines was a quietly tall figure, but a former No.1 all the same.

Dinara Safina came to Newport in support of brother Marat Safin, the other half of the sport’s only sibling tandem to reach the top of the ATP and WTA rankings.

“There’s lots of history here, and it’s a really beautiful museum,” she told WTA Insider. “I’ve never seen anything close to it, really. What impressed most me was this wall here, with the ball cans. I really liked those.”

Asked whether he or his sister was the better tennis player, Safin didn’t mince words.

“What a stupid question,” he blurted out at the press conference alongside Justine Henin and Amélie Mauresmo. “Of course, sister!”

Beaming from her seat was Safina, who once called big brother “her God” in a 2004 interview they conducted with one another for L’Équipe.

“When you play, I love watching you,” she said at the time. “When you lose, I’m even sadder than when I lose. When you’re hurt, I suffer. When you talk to me, I drink your words. When you come to see me play, I’m beside myself with joy. I hate hearing or reading something bad about you. I know you are hard-working and that you do everything you can to be No.1.”

The two-time French Open finalist expressed a similar sentiment on Saturday when she recalled playing Hopman Cup with him shortly before his 2009 retirement.

“It wasn’t easy because, for me, I have so much respect for him and I tried to do as well as I could. I had a close match in the final that I lost, but I still had a lot of fun and it was a great experience.”

The two might have spent nearly a decade together on tour, but both look back and admit that they couldn’t have been further apart.

“We never really saw each other. First, he was living in Spain, and when I moved to Spain, he was on the tour. We’d only see each other a few weeks out of the year, at Grand Slams and a few of the Masters events.”

“It’s really a pity that we didn’t spend enough time together and couldn’t understand each other,” Safin added in press. “We didn’t know each other, and at some point we didn’t even feel like brother and sister because we were separated for quite some time. Now we’re having a great time; finally I’m getting to know her.

“She understands tennis much more than me – a hundred times more than me – and she’s a better person.”

Safina has put that knowledge to good use since her own retirement in 2014. From an administrative position at the Kremlin Cup, the Russian worked with young compatriot Anna Blinkova last summer, and has been a mentor figure to recent junior Wimbledon champion Anastasia Potapova.

“We’re in contact and I’m always talking with her; I’m really proud that she won a Grand Slam. I think she’s going to be good.”

Our pride: Lena, @Dinarik27 & @verazvonareva @ITF_Tennis pic.twitter.com/NJOJYGVrni

— Vladas Lasitskas (@VladasLasitskas) July 6, 2016

Safina led a Golden Era for Russia, on top of the world at a time when she and her countrywomen held a near-monopoly on the Top 10. Looking to the future, she has high hopes for the new wave that features Daria Kasatkina, Margarita Gasparyan, and Elizaveta Kulichkova.

“Kasatkina, for me, I’m really impressed with her. I really love the way she plays. She’s very smart, very intelligent, with a very good feeling for the court and the ball.

“Gasparyan is struggling this year, but I really like her one-handed backhand and she has a different game. It’s a new generation; they still have to work hard to get higher in the rankings. But I like Kasatkina; she’s on the right track and I like the team she has.”

Part of the all-Russian podium from the 2008 Olympic Games, the 30-year-old recently reunited with fellow medalists Elena Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva for an ITF photoshoot, and has fond memories of their wild week in Beijing.

“After eight years, you realize what you achieved and what it was really like, but I would say, I don’t know if we’ll ever see what we were able to do again, sweeping the podium. We set a high bar for the next generation.

“With Elena and Vera, we’re always in contact. They’re beautiful girls. I’ve known Elena since I was a year old; she’s an amazing person.”

I just ran 17,0 km @ a 6'07''/km pace with Nike+. https://t.co/FEs2w5exzA #nikeplus pic.twitter.com/WLzep2w2MJ

— Dinara Safina (@Dinarik27) July 13, 2016

By summer’s end, Safina hopes to make a new life in New York; the Olympic silver medalist was seen jogging through Central Park before heading north to Newport. But there’s a sense she’d trade a crowded city for a crowded stadium in a heartbeat.

“I miss my fans and the crowds, that feeling you have on the court when you have a full crowd behind you and supporting you – whether you win or lose, especially when you win, that’s nice.

“I miss the traveling and all of the girls on the tour; even though we were competitors, we were like a family and had a really nice group of people. I really enjoyed it.”

Sitting on a set of pre-modern Wimbledon benches, Safina mused on whether she might one day return to the museum with her brother as a fellow Hall of Famer, but ever the awed younger sister, she resolved not to look too far in the future.

“Of course, it would be an amazing thing if I could join him one day. But for me, today is about being his sister, and I’m really proud of him. He deserves it. I know the way he was working to get to No.1 from where he started. I’m really happy for him.”

Follow Dinara on Twitter @Dinarik27 and Instagram @dinarasafina2704!

All photos courtesy of Dinara Safina and Getty Images.

The WTA Future Stars Clinic made its third stop of the 2016 season on Saturday in Jakarta following successful weekends in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. Assisting the platform – which aims to promote the game all over the Asia-Pacific region – in its latest clinic was a woman who has been, in her own words, “opening the door for professional tennis in Indonesia” for the better part of three decades.

“I’ve always followed all the WTA’s plans for growing the game in Indonesia, and hopefully this works,” former World No.19 Yayuk Basuki told WTA Insider.

Working with national representatives and players from her eponymous academy, Basuki spent the day working with the Future Stars on the court, and shared some of her memories of being a professional athlete.

“It’s always great to be able to give back to the next generation,” she said at the clinic led by Melissa Pine, Vice President of WTA Asia-Pacific and Tournament Director of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. “I hope to be able to inspire the children, and show them that anything is possible so long as you put your heart and mind to it.”

Basuki is Jakarta’s hometown hero with an impressive on-court resumé, one that features a run to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 1997 in singles and a box set of Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances in doubles – including a semifinal finish at the 1993 US Open. In the 20 years since reaching those heights, she remains the only Indonesian player to crack the Top 50.

“Maybe these clinics can encourage players – especially the young ones – so they can get motivated to be able to be up there in the WTA rankings,” she explained on Friday. “Because we really need some new stars from our country.

“At the moment really we don’t have any, only one is ranked inside the Top 600. It’s really that we need some juniors to come up. I’m following some of them; one or two of them are doing quite well on the ITF Junior Circuit. So hopefully we have a better future for the girls in the next coming years.”

A trailblazer for Indonesian tennis, Basuki took charge of a fledgling national career and quickly burst onto the international scene.

“In my time, no one ever thought an Indonesian player could do well as a professional. I had been playing for my country, for the flag, for so many years – for Fed Cup, the Asian Games or the Olympics.

“I was thinking: I don’t want to just play for my country; I want to turn pro. Within six months of doing that, I was Top 50. I stayed up there until I reached my highest ranking of Top 20.”

Retiring from singles at the start of the new millennium – after having won six WTA titles, – Basuki was eager to offer advice to the next generation of Indonesian stars. She became a WTA mentor to Angelique Widjaja, who defeated future No.1 Dinara Safina to win the first of two junior Grand Slam titles in 2001.

“I was looking forward that more players would follow me and what I did.”

Widjaja appeared on course to match – even surpass – what Basuki had achieved in her first two years on the WTA tour, rocketing up to No.55 in singles and No.15 in doubles, where she reached four Grand Slam quarterfinals. But injuries and burnout took their toll and Widjaja was gone from the game by 2008.

“I’ve tried to encourage her to come back and to play some – even if it was just for doubles – but she says she doesn’t have the motivation anymore and that’s such a pity.”

Undaunted by the setback, Basuki sought to grow the game herself by returning to tennis at nearly 40 years old, playing doubles on the ITF Circuit.

“I know that there was no way for to completely come back at my age, but it was more about trying to motivate the younger players. I was trying to say, ‘Come on, I’m 40 and I still can do it; why can’t they?’ I wanted to encourage them.”

The comeback might not have yielded the result she wanted, but it made her realize she needed to do something even bigger to change the way her country viewed professional sport.

“It’s so hard to get children involved in sports, or even to be an athlete, because most of the parents are thinking, ‘If I put my kid into athletics, what are they doing after?’ You know, what is life after sports? They’re all worried about that.”

Returning to Indonesia after coaching in Hong Kong, Basuki was encouraged to run for political office in 2013; within a year, she was a member of parliament working to reform sports and education.

“They don’t give enough attention for the sport,” she said of the government. “What they need is to put in more effort, to give more of the budget for the Indonesian sport. I’d already tried to work for the National Olympic Association, where I was Vice President. I tried to help as an advisor in the Indonesian ministry, as well. But nothing has worked, so the only thing right now is to get into the system, which was to become a house representative.

“During the campaign, it was clear not many people knew I used to be the ex-tennis player who turned into a politician. But I got enough votes!”

Between her political endeavors and the growing initiatives spearheaded by WTA Future Stars, Basuki is optimistic about the state of the sport – not only in her country, but also throughout the region.

“So far my country is giving more attention to education. But at least in sport, as well, we’re trying to make up for that in the budget. So in the beginning, for example, the budget was let’s say only 30%, but now it’s becoming three times larger than where it started when I first became a politician.

“I’m trying to create a system, one where athletes won’t have to worry about their future by creating pension plans and ways for them to develop skills for after their careers. I can share a lot of my experience, so hopefully we’ll be able to make progress.

“I’ve dedicated 26 years to Indonesian tennis, as a player, as a Fed Cup captain, and as coach as well. So what I’m looking forward to are some new players who really have their goals and their dreams. To tell you the truth, I haven’t found it yet. Hopefully at the clinic, I can see some of the younger ones who might have a brighter future.

“I’m hoping.”

All photos courtesy of the WTA.