Russia's Dinara Safina says big brother Marat Safin inspired her to reach the Australian Open final, even if his scathing comments were sometimes "rough" and "not very nice".Safina will claim her maiden Grand Slam and become the world number one if she beats Serena Williams in Saturday's decider, emulating her brother who won the men's title at Melbourne Park in 2005.
The 22-year-old said that victory fuelled her own desire to make it at the majors, describing her eleder brother as her idol. "It was just an amazing feeling when he won it," she said. "For us tennis players, a Grand Slam, it's something very big. "To know that he won it, it was just an unbelievable feeling. It made me (feel) that I also want this, to have it one day." But she admitted the win was initially overshadowed by Safin's damning public assessment of her when she crashed out of the 2005 tournament in the second round with a straight sets loss to Amelie Mauresmo.
"She needs to have a character and she needs to be a little bit grown-up woman,' he said at the time, adding that "she has to learn the hard way" as he questioned her fighting qualities. Safina said the "not very nice" comments upset her at the time and she still felt her brother had not fully understood what she was going through at the time. "Well, you know, he didn't know what was going through my mind because I didn't talk to him too much," she said. "He's not really a guy who has enough patience for this, to have a woman's talk.
"Sometimes it's tough to explain to him what I have been going through. I think it was a little bit rough, what he said at that time." However, Safina revealed Safin had been more complimentary in a text he sent after she reached the final, which said simply: "Well done."
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