Dinara Safina PROFILE

Dinara Safina PRE-TOURNAMENT ODDS: 9/2 NATIONALITY: RUS BIRTH DATE: 27/04/86 BECAME PRO: 2000 WORLD RANKING: 7

VERDICT

There's no doubt Olympic silver medallist Safina has been one of the revelations of the season and will be looking to continue her brilliant form at the US Open. The 22-year-old Russian recently claimed back-to-back tour titles when she followed up her triumph at the East West Bank Classic in Los Angeles with a dominant straight-sets victory over Dominika Cibulkova to clinch the Rogers Cup. That success in Montreal was also Safina's third crown in six events having also won the German Open in May while her run to the final of the Olympics and French Open this year more than suggests she's ready to produce her best at Grand Slam level. Flushing Meadows hasn't exactly been a happy hunting ground for Safina but she's now in great shape to improve on her previous best of the quarter-finals, which she reached in 2006.

TEN-YEAR GRAND SLAM HISTORY 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 Australian Open 1R 3R 2R 2R 3R 1R - - - - French Open RU 4R QF 1R 2R 1R - - - - Wimbledon 3R 2R 3R 3R 1R 1R - - - - US Open - 4R QF 1R 1R 4R 2R - - -