Creature Vs Creature: Safina's Hopman Cup Equaliser at Roland Garros

The first semifinal of 2009 Roland Garros to be contested between Dominika Cibulkova and Dinara Safina gives a feeling of a recapitulation of the 2009 Hopman Cup finals though Safina might want to give the final touch to this match's outcome as per her liking.

This is a Creature vs Creature, where we consider each opponent's pro and con along with several other factors; this article deals from Safina's perspective while Rajat's gives an insight about Cibulkova's chances.

Dinara Safina: Once, just known as Marat Safin's younger sister, Dinara Safina has now managed to capture the women tennis's pole position and has everything any professional player can hope for i.e everything- except a slam.

Twice, she has defied all odds to reach the finals of the ultimate tennis glory before proving acutely short of her goal. This time she returns to Roland Garros with a grim determination to, not to become one amongst the "World No. 1 without a Slam" category.

Will Win If: Her resilience is of utmost importance here and it will play an important part against Cibulkova who herself is nothing short of determination. Safina therefore, in order to win, has to force Cibulkova to come out of her comfort zone, pushing her to the far throes of desperate shot making.

In addition, Safina's comeback abilities are also worth boasting; at any point in the match she can be trailing but with her grit and "Sudden flash of brilliance" display can change the entire look of the match to her advantage.

Will Lose If: Lack of concentration has emerged to be Safina's main problem and where she has shown ability to make a comeback, she has also forfeited matches after leading comfortably against her rival.

Lapse of concentration fuelled and coupled with erratic shot selection; Safina's major enemy in any match is her unforced error count, which could very well act as a debilitating factor against Cibulkova who after having defeated Safina previously in a similar scenario, will very well have an idea about what really ticks her in the erroneous route.

Intangibles: Height won't have much of a say and Safina can't and shouldn't bolster hopes on the basis of her tallness.

For, Cibulkova who despite being at a midget-ian 5'3, holds the ability to clash successfully against taller opponents and could cause a serious upset to the World No. 1's chances of capturing her curtain raiser slam. Therefore banking on her superior height can prove to be like committing harakiri for Safina's chances which would be really foolish at this stage of the game.

One small step away from a place in the finals, for which these two are vying for; based on their individualistic game, each has to play till she finally makes her cut or unable to steer past, breaks her self in the process.