Venus destroys Safina in 51 minutes

Venus Williams enjoys her semi-final triumph over world No.1 Dinara Safina. A brilliant performance by the five-times champion Venus Williams finally exposed the grasscourt weakness of Dinara Safina today. Such is Williams’ utter dominance on this surface that the world number one went into the match as the clear underdog, and Venus made it horribly clear why. Statistically, this was her easiest match of the tournament so far, as she swept aside Safina 6-1, 6-0 in 51 minutes to set up an all-Williams final against her younger sister Serena. Safina, who had never even reached the second week of Wimbledon before, much less the semi-final, had a miserable time of it in the opening set. For one thing, if she was hoping the crowd would get behind her, she was faced with a Centre Court that was perhaps one tenth full. Understandably, there had been something of an exodus after the marathon previous semi-final. But a greater concern for 23-year-old Safina was that the very first serve she faced in the match was a statement of intent by Williams, timed at 122mph. The game followed much the same pattern, with Venus brushing her aside to love. But much worse, she repeated the love scoreline when Safina came to serve. The Russian made a contribution with her 32nd double fault of the tournament, and Venus finished the job with a forehand pass. In fact, 29-year-old Williams won the opening nine points of the match without reply, the last being a serve of 124mph to match the fastest serve of the tournament so far – which naturally belonged to her in any case. Quite unexpectedly, a couple of Williams errors and a powerful Safina forehand brought up an opportunity to break back. But Safina let the chance pass with a forehand that was far too deep – although really she had no option but to go for the lines with every shot, which obviously left her far more exposed to the likelihood of error. It seemed possible she would get on the scoreboard with her next service game, but from 40-15 it slipped through her hands and she was 0-4. Four points later it was 0-5 when Venus delivered her third love game of the match. Safina was berating herself, hammering the soles of her shoes with her racket. She put together a reasonable sequence finally to make it 1-5, but another huge serve brought up two set points for Venus, and she wasted no time in converting one. The set had taken her 27 minutes, with 10 winners to just one unforced error. It was stunning stuff. If the first set was torture for Safina, the second was actually worse. It must have been little comfort that the overwhelming onslaught cannot have come as any huge surprise, so greatly were the odds stacked in Williams’ favour on this surface. But all tournament Safina has looked unconvincing, and it never seemed likely that she would overturn her unwanted statistic of being the world number one without having won a Grand Slam title. Worse, if anything Williams was taking the assault up a notch. She was not only serving marvellously but producing formidable returns, playing consistently as if the heavy strapping on her left knee was not hindering her in the slightest. At times the ball was hit so hard that Safina simply could not get out of the way in time to produce any useful reply. Safina shouted at herself to improve, but no progress materialised. She was 0-4 down in no time, with Venus in total control. Safina had no answer, and served another double fault to make it 0-5. The crowd had now returned to the Centre Court, but there was little left to see, and what there was made uncomfortable viewing, such was Safina’s misery. Williams made just one unforced error throughout the match to the Russian’s 16. Rarely can a world number one have been so embarrassed. It was the eighth Wimbledon semi-final of her career for Venus, and her eighth win. She has now won 34 successive sets at Wimbledon. It will be an all-American celebration in the women’s final on Independence Day. Centre Court - Ladies' Singles - Semifinals Dinara Safina RUS (1) 1 0 Venus Williams USA (3) 6 6

Shocked Safina reflects on rout

Dinara Safina is helpless as she is forced into submission by Venus Williams in the Ladies' semi-final. Even 90 minutes after the end of her semi-final defeat at the hands of Venus Williams, Dinara Safina was still in shock from the extent of the rout. To her credit, the number one seed was unsparing in her assessment of the match which she lost 6-1, 6-0 in a lightning 51 minutes. “She gave me a pretty good lesson today,” said Safina ruefully. “It would be different on another surface. I am not happy with the end result. She is just too good on grass. It’s definitely disappointing to finish the match in less than one hour, and to win only one game. I have to accept it. But this is not my favourite surface, and I still reached the semi-final. So hopefully I can change my mentality on grass and come with a different expectation next year. “It’s the speed on grass which makes the game different. On hard courts or clay I have time to create a point. I need that time. But here there is no time. She goes straight for the winner. She puts you under pressure from the first point. “I tried to hit the ball and go for the shots. I missed by a little bit here and a little bit there, and she was pushing me to go for shots that I was not comfortable with.” Inevitably, of course, the lingering questions will be raised again about the fact that Safina has become the world number one without winning a Grand Slam tournament. She is not the first. Kim Clijsters won the US Open after becoming number one. Last year it was Jelena Jankovic’s turn to reach the top spot, and she is still without a Slam to her name. But Safina is the one in the spotlight at the moment, and for as long as she does not win a Slam title the question will follow her around. “Well, I’ve been in the semi-final at least of the last four Grand Slams,” sighed Safina, as the inevitable query came. “Being number one is the result of how you play the whole year. It’s not about how you play at one or two tournaments. I play consistently. I won Rome. I won Madrid. I have been in the final of the French Open and the Australian Open. Yes, I haven’t won them but this is not the end of the world.”

Preview: V. Williams v Safina

Dinara Safina getting fired up on Centre Court during her quarter-final against Sabine Lisicki. It is not often that a player ranked number one in the world, who is also the number one seed, goes into a Grand Slam semi-final as the out-and-out underdog. Such is the case for Dinara Safina, when she faces the defending champion Venus Williams for a place in Saturday’s Wimbledon final. One glance at the background statistics is enough to clarify the reason why. Williams, now 29, has seven Slam titles to her name, including five on the lawns of the All England Club. She has appeared in seven previous Wimbledon semi-finals and won all of them. Not only has she not dropped a set so far this Wimbledon, she has not dropped a set here since the third round in 2007, putting her currently on 32 consecutive sets won. She is, of course on this surface, serving faster than Safina and winning more of her first serve points. She has served more aces and far fewer double faults. All that makes tough reading for 23-year-old Safina, who is struggling with the unwanted fact of being world number one at a time when she has yet to win a Grand Slam title – although this year she has been runner-up in both Slams to date. The good news for the Russian is that she cannot be dethroned from that number one spot when the new rankings come out next Monday, no matter what happens between now and then. But by making the semi-final here she is carving out new territory, having never even ventured into the second week before. Both her last two rounds were tough three-setters, and to those who have watched her play it has seemed as if she is desperately trying to talk herself into a convincing mindset with every stroke of the ball. “I have never got so far here before so I’m happy,” insisted Safina. “I’m taking one match at a time and at the moment it’s working.” But Safina needs something extraordinary to happen for it to continue working against Venus. She trails 2-1 in their career encounters to date, all of which have taken place in the last year. But she can take heart from the fact that she beat Williams in their most recent encounter, in Rome on clay this spring. “This is definitely Venus’s best surface,” acknowledged Safina. “She loves playing here. I have nothing to lose. I want to go and play the way I can play. I beat her in Rome so I know what she’s doing, I know her weapons. I have my weapons too. I cannot have a slow start with her because here it’s so fast. So I have to really go on court pumped from the first point. I’m still learning. I still have room to improve.” She will especially have to improve her double fault count. Safina herself said she served “250” in her quarter-final against Sabine Lisicki, although it was actually 15. But Venus has delivered just 10 throughout the entire tournament. Yet for all but her first round match Williams has played with a heavy strapping on her left knee – the one she pushes off during service – and has been cagey answering questions about it, careful to give away little about the precise problem and how it is affecting her. Judging by her performances, the answer to that query is not at all. “Do I feel invincible here?” smiled Venus. “I’d like to say yes, but I really do work at it. Against Safina, all I can predict is more of the same stuff I’ve been doing. Just very aggressive. I think she definitely plays aggressively, tries to move forward when she can, and also plays good defence and tries to take advantage of serving well when she can. "She definitely has a good mix of both aggressive and defensive games, and that’s a good balance. I do have strategy. Maybe it doesn’t look like it, but I think that’s my secret weapon – that it doesn’t look like I’m thinking, but I am.” It was put to Venus that on paper the number one seed should be favourite, making her the underdog. So is that how she feels? “She [Safina] has top ranking but I have more experience in this tournament and more success,” replied Venus. “When I go out there I’m going to feel like I want to make it happen on my side of the net.”

Shaky Safina passes Lisicki test

Sabine Lisicki of Germany plays a forehand during her match against top seed Dinara Safina. Despite 15 double faults and 38 unforced errors, Dinara Safina outlasted dynamic German teenager Sabine Lisicki to win a tougher-than-expected quarter-final 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1. The world No.1 battled for two hours 25 minutes to book a semi-final tie against Venus Williams. If the unheralded Lisicki, 19 years old and in her first Grand Slam quarter-final, had any nerves about the big occasion on Centre Court, she certainly handled them better than her opponent. The Russian may be top of the world rankings but she has yet to prove she has the big match temperament to go all the way in a Grand Slam environment. The top seed won the toss and elected to serve – a brave move on her part since, as her serve goes, so her game goes. The opening game began with services that were long, net (double fault), let, let, fair, let, long, but Safina somehow held. Lisicki on the other hand started as she meant to go on – with an ace, her 30th of the tournament, and held serve more conventionally. Safina was to be less fortunate in her second service game. Two double faults presented her opponent with a pair of break points which the Russian promptly saved, but when a third one came, disaster struck. A point had to be replayed after a call was overruled, which meant that Dinara had to go through the chore of serving all over again. A third double-fault later and Lisicki was in the driving seat. Once she had been broken, Safina paradoxically seemed under less pressure and served more comfortably, but she rarely looked like threatening Lisicki’s service. The German did face break points in mid-set but had the nous to realise that the harder she served, the harder Safina returned. Serves of 80-90 mph became the order of the day, which kept Safina guessing and made Lisicki’s aces all the more unreturnable when she fired one of them down instead. At 5-3, all the German had to do was serve out for the set, but it was as if she suddenly realised that the pressure was now on her. Until that point, any rally that had gone beyond four shots had automatically gone to Lisicki, the lithe teenager giving Safina – whose movements on grass are cumbersome at best– the runaround and picking her spots at will. This ability deserted her momentarily and Safina needed no second bidding, breaking back to 15 then holding her nerve to level at 5-5. The best chance for the six-foot Muscovite to take the set was via another break, but Lisicki got her stroke-making back and the scoreboard announced 6-6. A tiebreak is the worst form of mental torture for the fragile Safina psyche, who had previously had to endure gales of laughter from the Centre Court crowd after a service from the deuce side just failed to clip the inner tramline – on the wrong side of the court. Though she held the first point, a break was never far away and Lisicki soon had three set points only to wobble again, putting an easy volley wide on the second one with the court at her mercy. She challenged the call, and while she may or may not have believed that the ball had clipped the line, it gave Safina an extra 30 seconds to wait before serving. By default or design on Lisicki’s part, it was a masterstroke – Safina double-faulted, as she had done on match point in the final of the French, and handed the set to the teenager. Nerves crept into Lisicki’s game halfway through the second set and it was her turn to double-fault on break point, handing Safina the advantage in the crucial seventh game. At 5-4, she had the chance to serve out but began with a double-fault – her ninth of the match. She obstinately refused to vary her line or length and found herself facing a break point which she saved with a big serve. But then she lost her temper, railing and hurling invectives at the chair umpire instead of letting her tennis do the talking – an unwise move after she had been given a warning for hurling her racket to the ground after her double fault on set point in the opener. More nerves and second serves ensued, but Lisicki was the shakier of the two. Safina held to lead 6-4 and set up a nerve jangling decider. The Russian broke to open the third, hurtling into the net and digging out a drop, only to hand the initiative back after a mammoth game in which she saved three break points, squandered two game points and ran the gamut of challenges, mis-hits, drops, double faults only for the net cord to hand Lisicki the break back. That, however, was as good as it got for the plucky German teenager, who had obviously spent her final cartridges in breaking back. Safina’s superior fitness powered her to five straight games, and she even had time to practise her famously febrile serve when Lisicki called a medical time-out for cramp. The deciding set gave the final scoreline a lopsided look, and was poor reward for Lisicki’s incredible run this past week which saw her defeat three seeds and two top 10 players. Safina, meanwhile, knows that she will have her work cut out for her on Thursday against five-time champion Venus Williams. But winning a quarter-final on her least favourite surface while only playing at her best in sporadic bursts represents some kind of progress for the world No.1. Centre Court - Ladies' Singles - Quarterfinals Dinara Safina RUS (1) 65 6 6 Sabine Lisicki GER 77 4 1

All smiles as Safina goes far

Dinara Safina shows her power during her quarter-final clash with Sabine Lisicki. It is not often that both players can come off court smiling and looking on the bright side after a match, but this was the case when Dinara Safina defeated Sabine Lisicki in a quarter-final that ebbed and flowed and had the Centre Court crowd on the edge of its seat for nigh on three hours. The Russian is the world No.1, but the weight of expectation on her is far lower on grass, where her less fluid movements prevent her from being a real threat unless her service is firing on all cylinders – which it certainly was not on Tuesday. “Sometimes I don't do the things that I have to,” Safina said after a performance that included 15 double faults and 38 unforced errors. “Even if I'm doubting, I still have to do it, and it was a little bit disappointing because yesterday [when she defeated Amelie Mauresmo in the fourth round] was a good match, and today again I had a very slow start, like I'm playing only half of tennis until I'm down, and then I start to play better. This is what is disappointing - why I don't start from the beginning the way I was ending yesterday’s match.” Safina endears herself to the press corps with a good line in self-deprecating humour – invaluable for someone who is trying to shake off the tags of “Marat’s little sister” and “No.1 without winning a Slam”. When asked if she was working specifically on the mental side of her game, she revealed a good line in dead-pan delivery. “If I did work, I would not serve 250 double faults today! It's just my brain sometimes doesn't do the things that I have to do,” she smiled, raising her eyebrows in acknowledgement of her occasional mental struggles. There were, however, plenty of positives to take out of the match for both players. As far as Safina is concerned, anything beyond the fourth round on grass is a bonus, so a semi-final against Venus Williams is beyond her expectations. “Every day I [am] improving, I'm getting better playing here. If I play my best and she [Venus] plays the best, it's 50/50 who’s going to win the match. I don't think if I play my best tennis and she plays her best,that she's the favourite – I think I still have a chance.” For Lisicki, there was no disappointment at coming so close to the semi-final of a Grand Slam at the tender age of 19 only to fade as the match wore on. “I had a great tournament. I think nobody expected it to happen, including myself,” said the German, who is set to rise to No.27 in the world based on her performance here. “Of course I'm sad that I lost today but I gave it all that I had and I fought hard. She was more experienced than me and she has already been to the second week of a Grand Slam, so she knew how to deal with it. “I’ve learned how to play on grass. I know that I can play on grass now and that I don't have to be afraid of coming back next year and playing all the grass court tournaments. I'm actually really looking forward to it, because I really enjoyed my time being here.You know, I think it will be a good year next year,” smiled Lisicki, and few who have watched her progress over the past 10 days would disagree.

Solid Safina into second week

Safina backhand Top seed Dinara Safina overcame spirited early resistance from Belgian outsider Kirsten Flipkens to win 7-5, 6-1 and book her place in the fourth round for the first time at Wimbledon. While her serve was not always reliable, she dug deep to save four break points, and her returning by the end of the match was simply stunning. Flipkens ousted No.30 seed Agnes Szavay in the first round, and with Nicole Vaidisova also going out in her opener, it meant that world number one and top seed Safina has faced opponents of descending rank as the first week has worn on. The Belgian had only won seven tour-level singles matches in her career – two of them this week – and the match was seen more of a guide to Safina’s mental fortitude as opposed to a real test. Flipkens elected to serve and held the opener despite facing a raft of break points, and then the focus moved on to the Safina serve. The first double fault came as early as the second point, neither attempt threatening the net cord, let alone the service box, but after that she settled into a better rhythm for the first half of the set. Her left knee is troubling her and requiring regular doses of pain-killers, and she is unable to push off from it as she would like on service, but this has led to her sacrificing a little raw power – a quality she has in abundance – in favour of more subtlety. That, along with a dose of plain old confidence, is what has prevented her from securing her first major. The Belgian rode her punchy, serve and occasional volley-style throughout the first set and her deep, powerful returns even saw her carve out a break point in the eighth game, which Safina saved with a kicking second serve into the body, before serving out with an ace. She had a second bite of the cherry two games later as the Russian’s radar went badly awry on the first service, but again she was unable to capitalise and missed the chance to pocket the set. A tiebreak looked on the cards until Safina did what a top seed should, upping her game at the right time. Two wonderful backhands – one down the line, one cross-court – sandwiched a double fault and the Muscovite went from 30-40 to a break up at 6-5. The onus was then on her to serve out, and when Flipkens missed a volley with the court at her mercy that would have made it 0-30 in her favour, Dinara could even afford herself a rare wry smile. Safina was on a roll, and took four games in a row to seal the first set 7-5 and pull away 2-0 in the second, helped in no small part by two double faults from Flipkens. A sea-change was never too far away, however, and she again faced a break point at 2-1. Her first point kicked up chalk-dust but on the wrong line, and after a wait for the Hawkeye challenge, she showed incredible fortitude in then firing an ace at 105 mph straight down the middle. More deuces ensued. Dinara cursed, while her coach Zelkjo Krajan remained impassive. Flipkens ran around forehands and painted the corners with returns but Safina finally held to lead 3-1 with a volley at the net that seemed long but just clipped the baseline. Half-an-inch the other way and who knows how the set might have panned out, but now Dinara was brimming with confidence. She broke to love, held serve at a canter and then sealed the match with another break to give the score line a flattering look. She will now face Amelie Mauresmo in the fourth round – a woman who, like Safina, ascended to the top of the rankings before winning a Slam. It will be a battle between the old and the new guard, between Dinara’s booming forehands and Amelie’s sliced backhands. An intriguing tie awaits. Court 2 - Ladies' Singles - 3rd Round Dinara Safina RUS (1) 7 6 Kirsten Flipkens BEL 5 1

Safina powers past Paraguayan

A fierce forehand from No.1 seed Dinara Safina against Rossana De Los Rios Dinara Safina lived up to her No.1 billing by making short work of Rossana de los Rios, winning 6-2, 7-5 in just over an hour to move into the third round, thus equalling her best showing at Wimbledon. While her game lacked variation, any ball that was there to be hit was clinically dispatched, while her service was more of a weapon than in recent times. The Russian will continue to be regarded as a stop-gap world No.1 until she adds a Grand Slam to her trophy cabinet, and her recent travails and high-profile final defeats (at the Australian Open in January and at the last two French Opens) have heaped yet more pressure on her powerful shoulders and fragile psyche. She has reached 13 finals in 22 tournaments since May 2008, a statistic any player would be proud of. Yet the fact that she lost more than half of them serves only to highlight the Jekyll and Hyde nature of her game – brilliant and frustrating in equal measures. On Wednesday, there was more of Doctor Dinara Jekyll than Miss Safin Hyde on display. She won the toss and elected to serve – a surprising move given her lack of confidence over recent months on this most important of shots – and when she opened with a double fault, a disaster was on the cards. The ace and two service winners that followed set a pattern, however. Rare were the moments throughout the match when she ramped it up to 106 mph, preferring to sacrifice a little speed for more accuracy, and she was never in any real danger of being broken. Her game was, and is, all about power. She sliced the ball just once per set and came to the net only to shake hands after the final point. The rest of the match was spent sending flat fore and backhands barely inches over the net to either corner in a display of power and accuracy. Her opponent – a journeywoman whose only successes have come on the lower-ranked ITF circuit and with a daughter as close in age to Safina as she is herself – gave as good as she got, and even had the crowd smiling when asking for a Hawk-Eye challenge when she was called for a foot fault – No.2 Court chair umpire Eva Asderaki politely declined. The Paraguayan held her own in the second set until the 11th game, eliciting some Marat-esque pouts from Safina when she fluffed her returns. But in the end, the Muscovite’s brute strength won the day at a relative canter. And while De los Rios returns to her family and to the ITF circuit, Dinara can continue her elusive quest for the Grand Slam holy grail. She will need another five victories over the next nine days to remove the “always the bridesmaid” and “Marat’s little sister” tags that dog her every step. Court 2 - Ladies' Singles - 2nd Round Dinara Safina RUS (1) 6 7 Rossana De Los Rios PAR 3 5

Safina fails to shine

Safe Safina If Dinara Safina is to make Wimbledon 2009 the place where she overturns the unhappy statistic of being the world number one without a Grand Slam title to her name, then she is going to have to play with significantly more authority than she could muster on No.1 Court today. A straight sets win is always handy, but Safina made hard work of her 7-5, 6-3 triumph over Spain’s Lourdes Dominguez Lino. The first set took almost an hour, and unfortunately showed Safina at her most unconvincing. Perhaps the Russian simply needs time to find her feet on grass after the long clay court season. But then again she has never advanced into the second week of Wimbledon in six previous attempts, whereas she has made at least the semi-finals at all the other Grand Slam events. The good news for Safina is that she cannot be dislodged from the number one spot whatever happens this fortnight. But her hopes cannot be soaring on this display. True, she broke early, for 2-1. But the point that brought her the break was hardly a monument to tactical genius. Twice Safina smashed unconvincingly, leaving Dominguez Lino with various options to pass her at the net – only for the 28-year-old Spaniard to tap the ball back to her opponent obligingly on both occasions. Safina had a chance to break again for 4-1, but Dominguez Lino saved it with an effective crosscourt backhand. Then, most unexpectedly, the Spaniard broke back, courtesy of a wild forehand and then a double fault from the number one seed. Dominguez Lino – one of 10 siblings, no less – is a stocky player who rose to her highest ranking of 40 three years ago. Currently the number 72, she produced a career best Grand Slam result at Roland Garros last month by making the third round, but she had not been beyond the first round in three previous main draw appearances at Wimbledon, and today was to prove no better. At 3-4 with serve, a pied wagtail decided to drop in on the action. The bird landed squarely in the middle of the netcord, obliging Safina to pause on her service at 30-all, before it flew away. The tiebreak looked a distinct possibility until at 5-5 Safina produced easily her best two successive points of the set – a winning drop shot and a solid backhand off a second serve – to break, and she took the set without further drama. She broke at once at the start of the second, but not without unnecessary errors postponing what should have been an easy conversion. The needless mistakes would not go away, and 23-year-old Safina seemed to spend every point either pumping her fist in self-affirmation, or wheeling away in frustration to berate herself on the baseline. A poker face is possibly not her greatest strength. She seemed to be getting into her stride with another break for 4-1, but handed it right back next game with a fluffed half-volley. The pattern repeated itself with Safina struggling to serve out the match, until at last she closed it out after 101 minutes.

Safina and Jelena to get it right?

Dinara Safina and Jelena Jankovic are united by a common burden as they prepare for Wimbledon.

The Russian and the Serbian are the only women players in history to have been ranked number one in the world but never to have won a Grand Slam singles title.

And, although neither can be blamed as such for that anomaly, until they make that breakthrough and hold their nerve when it matters, they cannot be seriously bracketed with the sport's greatest names.

Kim Clijsters and Amelie Mauresmo would understand the pressure on both players, having themselves previously been in the same position before triumphing at the US Open and Australian Open, respectively.

Safina and Jankovic have not been strangers to Grand Slam finals. Both have won doubles titles, while Safina has been a singles runner-up on three occasions, including earlier this month at the French Open, and Jankovic lost to Serena Williams in last year's US Open final.

But neither has matched expectations on the biggest stage, and that is a problem for the women's game, already in the shadow of the men, where Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have developed a rivalry to match any in the history of the sport.

Any sporting division would struggle for attention and an audience if its number one player is not a household name.

Neither Safina or Jankovic could claim to have a public profile remotely comparable to that of either Williams sister, nor the retired Justine Henin or Martina Hingis, or even Clijsters, who will be eager to improve on her present status as a one-slam wonder when she launches a comeback in August after two years out of the game.

Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova, Amelie Mauresmo too, are several rungs up from Safina and Jankovic in terms of their reputation and appeal.

Safina, the current number one, powered through the early rounds in the French Open but fell apart against her fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final.

Her response to defeat revealed where she believes her shortcomings lie.

"I started the tournament really strongly, and then in the quarters, against (Victoria) Azarenka, I started to slow down a little bit," Safina said. "I was not playing as aggressively as when I started.

"Slowly I became a little bit passive. Of course, against Sveta (Kuznetsova) you have to be very aggressive. But it's not easy to go from becoming passive to turning and being suddenly hugely aggressive."

Serena Williams also recently discussed Safina, arguing the 23-year-old was "definitely authenticated" as the world's top player - an opinion seemingly at odds to her previous statements on the matter.

The American, with 10 Grand Slam singles titles to her name, knows how to handle the big occasions better, though.

Despite being ranked world number two, Serena is pretty much second to no-one, never mind Safina, when it comes to landing the game's top prizes.

Which is one reason why many believe the Wimbledon title is again destined for the Williams family collection - although it is sister Venus who is the two-time defending champion.

Jankovic has been struggling desperately with a lack of confidence since beginning the year as number one.

Fourth-round losses in the Australian Open and French Open have told the story of her campaign.

"Obviously I'm not playing the same game and not the same style as I used to play last year," said Jankovic after her Roland Garros exit.

"I have to learn and I have to change. I need my confidence back. I need to go for my shots. I need to have that belief that they're going to go in."

Henin, a class act and a winner of seven grand slam singles titles, retired last year at the age of 25 and is sorely missed.

She still follows the game and recently suggested it was "quite sad" that it no longer followed that the world number one would automatically have a Grand Slam beside their name.

Kuznetsova, who secured her second major by adding the French Open to her 2004 US Open title, believes the many top Russian players on tour feed off the war-time experiences of their grandparents, giving them the steel required to cope at the highest level.

"They had to go with nothing, without maybe bullets, only with a knife, and still go to war," Kuznetsova said.

"They teach their kids to be always strong."

In that case, Safina's slams could be just around the corner, and she might achieve multiple champion status and relieve herself of the perception she is a 'false' number one.

But, just as Kuznetsova has been taught, and the greats of the game would testify, such success cannot be achieved on ability alone.