Safina Cruises at French Open... But Watch Out...
Number One seed, Russian Dinara Safina, has continued her strong play from the clay court season through the first three rounds of the 2009 French Open, only dropping FOUR games in three matches! If Dinara was feeling confident before Roland Garros, she has to have gained confidence from her play so far. Nonetheless, the flip side of Safina winning her first few matches so easily is that she has not played through any tense moments or a long
match. If Safina progresses further at the 2009 French Open, then she will definitely face stiffer competition along the way. Sometimes it’s harder to play well at 5-5 in the second or third set after cruising so easily earlier in a match or a tournament. Heading into a Grand Slam, players need to feel that they’ve already done their “homework” and a player wants to have as many easy matches as possible in the early rounds of a Grand Slam in order to conserve energy. Nonetheless, if you are winning easily then sometimes players spend a little extra time on the practice court after their matches both to get in some additional on-court training, as well as to practice some aspects of their game that weren’t tested so far in the tournament.
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