Madrid: Former world number one and Olympic silver medallist Dinara Safina announced yesterday that she is to retire, Russia’s tennis federation press service reported.
The report said that the 12 WTA titles winner Safina will participate in the award ceremony of the WTA Madrid Open tournament, where she has won one of her titles in 2009. Safina’s farewell ceremony will also take place in Madrid.
“Of course I decided to quit much earlier,” the press service quoted Safina as saying. “I decided to withdraw from any official announcements until now as I was still hoping to overcome my back injury. But this moment has finally come.
“I played the last professional tournament of my career here in Madrid and that’s why I think it’s the best place for me to quit the game.”
The sister of two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin, the 28-year-old hasn’t played in three years due to an ongoing back injury. Safina, a winner of 12 WTA Tour titles, collected an Olympic silver medal in Beijing and is a three-time runner-up in Grand Slam finals.
Fognini rages at umpire in Dolgo defeat
Italian number one Fabio Fognini blasted umpire Mohamed Lahyani as he slipped to a fifth consecutive defeat against Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 at the Madird Masters.
Fognini reportedly shouted at Lahyani, “You come now, I want to see you. Don’t be scared,” as he trudged off the court still fuming an overrule he made against the world number 15 in the deciding set.
Lahyani wasn’t the only subject of Fognini’s frustration as he also reprimanded a cameraman during the match for filming too close to him at a change of ends.
