Tennis News : Bad back forces Safina to retire

Safina missed much of last season with the same injury

Former world number one Dinara Safina has retired from professional tennis, her elder brother Marat has said.

Safin explained his 25-year-old sister had been forced to quit largely because of a chronic back injury.

"She has taken the decision relatively well. She considers it just to be the end of a period in her life," he said.

Safina - who won a silver medal for Russia at the Beijing Olympics and made three Grand Slam singles finals - last competed back in April in Madrid.

Safin added: "Everything is alright with her health. She feels good in everyday life, but [the back injury means] she simply can't play tennis professionally any more."

SAFINA TOURNAMENT WINS

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2009: Rome, Madrid, Portoroz

2008: Berlin, Los Angeles, Montreal, Tokyo

2007: Gold Coast

2005: Paris (indoors), Prague

2003: Palermo

2002: Sopot

The Russian can look back on a career in which she won 12 singles and nine doubles WTA titles.

Despite the disappointment of never winning a Grand Slam or Olympic title, Safina climbed to the top of the women's rankings in April 2009 before persistent back problems plagued the rest of her career.

In August she said she would not play again this year and Marat Safin said: "She must think of herself, not to play again, but just to live a normal life.

"She'll make an official announcement, but being her brother, I think she has no chance at all of making a comeback."

Marat Safin, a former world number one himself, added: "She had tried several times to make a comeback but it only caused her more problems."

She suffered more back injury troubles in the 2010 Australian Open, missing several tournaments in the early part of the year as a consequence, and by the end of the year she had dropped to 62 in the rankings.

This season she was beaten in the first round of the Australian Open 6-0 6-0 by Kim Clijsters and missed the remaining three Grand Slam events, leaving a 2007 doubles win at the US Open as her only major tournament success.