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Marat Safin's little sister a title contender

Jim Baumbach

4:25 PM EDT, August 26, 2008

To prove Marat Safin's name still carries a good amount of weight in the tennis world, all you need to do is look at Tuesday's schedule. Safin's first-round match was played on the headline court here - Arthur Ashe Stadium - which is an awfully big stage for an unseeded player.

Regarded at one time as the world's best player, Safin has dropped several notches in recent years, thanks in some part to a nagging knee injury he says is gone. He's still regarded as one of the more talented players, but gone are the days when he's considered a threat to win the whole thing.

But a championship for his family certainly is not out of the question. That's because his sister, Dinara Safina, is seeded sixth in the women's bracket, and she showed why earlier Tuesday. She breezed through her first-round matchup, easily dispatching Kristie Ahn of Upper Saddle River, N.J., 6-3, 6-4.

"I'm still his younger sister," she said. "Doesn't matter, because I would walk around and hear the crowd saying, 'Oh, this is the sister of Marat.' I think forever I'm going to be his little sister."

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Maybe the only way her reputation changes for good is with a championship here, and that's certainly not out of the question. This U.S. Open, more than any other in recent memory, is anyone's to win.

"That would be my dream come true," she said. "That would be the most amazing thing that could happen."

Her brother won the U.S. Open here eight years ago, and his first-round matchup Tuesday started not too long after his sister was finished. But she had no plans to watch him play.

"I don't watch him unless I'm already out of the tournament," she said, "because I get very tense."

If that's the case, she made the right call. Her brother's match against Vincent Spadea of Boca Raton, Fla., went five sets, and included one of Safin's trademark outbursts at the referee.

The funny thing is Safina said her brother used to advise her over and over to keep her cool on the court.

When they played against each other while she was growing up, she used to cry and act like a baby. "He hated it," she said. "He always was like, 'Come on. You have to grow up. You cannot behave like this.' "

Interesting advice, considering Safin has always been known as a nut, to put it kindly.

Safina said her brother admitted he spoke from experience, saying, "Don't do this."

Safina said she has followed his advice, and continues to do so, even though she's clearly the better player of the two right now.

"I better listen to his advice," she said. "Yes, I now have some success, but he was No. 1 in the world, so I still have some catching up to do."

Winning the U.S. Open could change that.