The drama of Dinara Safina, number 1, who failed to return to tennis: “I was really drunk” | Relief
The world of elite sports requires great sacrifice for those who want to reach the top. Endless work sessions, physical and mental stress, pain tolerance… everything to reach the top. And when you get to the top, what? Often the demands of this position are overwhelming for athletes, who enter into a negative dynamic and are never the same again.
This is the case Dinara Safina. The Russian tennis player was one of the greatest figures in women’s tennis at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. Between 2008 and 2009, he reached the final of Grand Slam tournaments three times. (twice at Roland Garros and once at the US Open), and was also a semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 2009. The year in which Safina became number 1 in the world for 25 weeks (from April 20 to October 11 of the same year) when everything seemed to catch his eye.
However, in 2010, everything went wrong for Marat’s sister Safin. Poor results and injuries began to accompany the tennis playerwho challenged him last professional match at Madrid Open 2011. He was barely 25 years old, and at that time he did not yet realize that he had just picked up a racket for the last time as a professional. Why didn’t he come back?
The Russian tennis player, who continues to work in the world of racquets as a liaison with the ATP and WTA at the tournament in St. Petersburg, gave an interview to the publication Tennis.com and told why he did not return to the slopes. “What kept me from coming back all these years was that I physically had to struggle with my weight. I struggled with anxiety and an eating disorder that led me to binge eating. I was always overweightbut I never managed to lose him, although I fought hard for it.”
“I tried different diets, and nothing helped, and playing with 30 extra pounds is not easy”
Safina admits that she tried everything in her power to fight this disorder, but in the end she could not overcome it. “I tried different diets and nothing helped, and playing with 30 extra pounds is not easy. For me, this was one of the main reasons why I never tried to return. I wasn’t physically like that, but people kept commenting that I had gained weight and worse things.”
The Moscow tennis player had numerous back problems in 2009, and despite returning to the courts, she did so due to weight problems that eventually led her to quit the racket. “I want people to understand that this can happen to anyone. Everyone has their own problems and fears, this is normal. A lot of people have gone through the same thing, but there is always light at the end of the tunnel.”– Safina admits more than 10 years after she played her last game at the professional level.
