Tennis Player Dinara Safina Leaps Out of Big Brother's Shadow

June 5, 2006 — -- At 6 feet 4 inches, 195 pounds, Marat Safina casts an enormous shadow. But it is his tennis resume -- two Grand Slam singles titles and two other finals -- that has always defined Dinara Safina as the little sister.

On Sunday, here at Roland Garros, that may have changed.

Down to Maria Sharapova 1-5 in the third set, the 20-year-old Russian somehow won the last six games of their fourth-round match and knocked the No. 4 seed out of the tournament, 7-5, 2-6, 7-5. The grinding match consumed 2 hours, 34 minutes.

For the second straight round, Dinara Safina will face a fellow Russian, No. 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Safina is into the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of her young career.

"I think it's unbelievable what I did, just to come back," she said later. "I took everything in my hands. Before, she was dictating. I always had to run from corner to corner. I said, 'OK, now I try to make her run.'

"I started to look for the lines and I started to be more aggressive from every point. I finished my way today. I just didn't want to leave the court."

Safina held serve at 1-5, and Sharapova found herself two points from the match, serving at 5-2, 30-all. But she couldn't close the deal.

"The game at 5-2 opened up the door a little bit for her," Sharapova said. "You know, you get hit in the head. That's just what happens."

Sharapova, who has been nursing a tender right foot, withdrew from two tournaments before Roland Garros -- Rome and Istanbul.

"I haven't played a lot of matches in the past weeks, and I don't feel like I'm match-tough yet," she said. "In that first set, I should have [also] closed it out."

Indeed, Sharapova led Safina 5-3 to open the match and collapsed, losing the last four games of the set.

You could see this result coming -- from both sides. Sharapova's power game does not play well on the slow red clay and she struggled mightily in her first-round match with Mashona Washington. Safina, on the other hand, has been playing her best tennis --