Dinara Safina
French Open Tennis Contenders 2011 - Dinara Safina
World number one, Dinara Safina, comes into the tournament as the new world one and winner of the WTA Madris tournament last week.
She was beaten in the final last year by Ana Ivanovic and is seeded to meet the Serb again in the quarter final this year.
Safina has continued to improve massively over the last 18 months and also reached the final of the 2009 Australian Open, losing to Serena Williams in the final. She has an excellent clay court game and at odds of 5/2 to win her first Grand Slam, she represents great value.
Round by Round
Safina's progress this year is recorded below
- Round One - Beat Anna Keothavong 6-0, 6-0. An overwhelming performance that seriously impressed the bookmakers. Her odds to win the tournament were immediately cut to 11/4 from 7/1 to win the tournament. She now plays compatriot Vitalia Diatchenko in the second round where she is unbackable at 1/40 odds on to win, while Diatchenko is a 20/1 shot to shock the tennis world by winning.
- Round Two - Beat Diatchenko 6-1, 6-1. Another dominant show by the number one seed in a match where she lost just two games.
- Round Three - Beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenka 6-2, 6-0. Safina is producing the best tennis of all in the Lsdies singles so far. She was explosive against Pavlyuchenka and it looks very difficult to find a winner other than her in the tournament. Her odds have been shortened to 15/8 with most bookmakers.
- Round Four- Beat Aravena Rezai 6-1, 6-0. Looks better and better as each match goes by. She has only dropped five games at the tournament so far this year which is testament to her brilliant form
