TENNIS FRENCH OPEN WOMEN'S FINAL: RUSSIA'S DINARA Safina may take some comfort from the fact Chris Evert lost her first three slam finals and went on to win 18 majors. Nobody would suggest for a second Safina will achieve such domination, but all is not lost.

“I really wanted to win. I just didn’t handle it,” she admitted. “I was a little bit desperate on court, and didn’t do the things I had to do. I didn’t stay tough mentally.”

Normally it is possible to pick up the thread of the French Open and weave it into the tapestry of Wimbledon, which begins in two weeks. On this occasion it is difficult to imagine either of Saturday’s finalists making a huge impact on the grass.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, who defeated Safina 6-4, 6-2, has no liking for the surface, and has never progressed beyond the quarter-finals, while although Safina’s big serve and heavy ground-strokes appear more suited, she does not move well at the All England club and has won only seven matches in six visits.

Safina, the sister of Marat Safin, entered Roland Garros as the world number one, and the leading claycourt player. After the easiest of first weeks, she experienced her first difficulties in the quarter-finals against Anastasia Azarenka of Belarus, though even then there was no apparent suggestion the pressure was boiling up into something beyond her control.

She knew better. “Against Azarenka I started to slow down a little bit. I was not playing aggressive like I started. Slowly I became a little bit passive. Of course, against Sveta you have to be very aggressive, but it’s not easy after becoming passive to suddenly become hugely aggressive again.”

Safina will remain the world number one in name whatever happens at Wimbledon. These are awkward times for the women’s game. The previous number one, Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, has not won a major either and, like Safina, could scarcely be regarded as the best player in the world.

“Dinara is an amazing athlete. She works very hard and one day she’ll make it here,” said Kuznetsova, a former runner-up at Roland Garros. “I respect her a lot, but she played with too much pressure here.”

Kuznetsova, in her ninth year as a professional, but not 24 until later this month, has had her own difficulties, and last year thought about quitting. Nerves have consumed her on the big occasions, but on Saturday, particularly in the second set, she played with a rare freedom.

“I was calm. It was a similar feeling to when I won the US Open (in 2004). I came out and said, ‘Everything’s great. I’m just doing what I love. It’s my passion’. But there have been some very tough times.”

Having left St Petersburg for Barcelona when she was a teenager, working at the Sanchez-Casal academy where Andy Murray spent his formative years as a junior, she decided to return to Russia last year. Kuznetsova has always had a good relationship with her opponent’s brother, Safin, who once again was not at Roland Garros to watch his sister.

“I said to Marat a few times that maybe I should stop playing. He said: ‘Are you crazy or what? You have unbelievable opportunities. You just have to play’. So I came back to Moscow.”

Many still believed she was making the wrong move. It was at the Beijing Olympics, when she was trying to get the Russian basketball players a picture with Roger Federer, that the two spoke, the Swiss having once said he enjoyed watching her play, although she was previously too shy to approach him.

“We had a talk for 10 minutes, and I told him about my problems. He said: ‘Look, you can only depend on yourself. You can control it. If you can concentrate and live in Moscow, do this. If you cannot, only you can judge’. I came back to Moscow and I worked hard.”

And now she is French champion, the title she wanted the most, though the immediate celebration was understandably muted, with the final ending on a Safina double fault.

“Before, in my dreams, I had imagined I was going to fall on the clay if I won. But I could not do it. I respect her too much to do that.”

Safina will hope this respect eventually leads her to dispel her demons and win a major.

Guardian Service