Tennis has boasted some legendary families over the years, some of whom have even redefined the sport as we know it.
Serena and Venus Williams are the first who naturally come to mind, as inarguably one of the most successful sporting sibling duos ever.
Andy and Jamie Murray are another example worth mentioning, who enjoyed great success across both singles and doubles as well.
However, one family that is perhaps overlooked is the Safins.
What makes this particularly unfair is the fact that they remain the only brother-sister combination to have both held the world number one status in their respective disciplines, and yet only one of them ever won a major title.
When Dinara Safina and Marat Safin were both world number ones
Marat Safin was six years older than his sister, Dinara, but their careers were closely intertwined with one another.
After all, despite the age difference, the former turned professional just three years earlier than Dinara.
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His experience clearly paid dividends in their inter-family race to the top of the world rankings, with Marat having held the crown for nine weeks in 2000 after he won the US Open.
In beating Pete Sampras in the final, he became the first Russian ever to win this event, but was overtaken in the world rankings by Gustavo Kuerten at the last match of the season, cruelly.
Safin went on to reach a further three major finals, eventually winning his second Grand Slam at the 2005 Australian Open, where he beat Novak Djokovic, in his first appearance in the main draw of a major, and later the top seed Roger Federer, in an iconic five-set brawl in the semi-final.
Dinara did not have quite the same success at the Grand Slam level, but still managed to ascend to world number one in 2009.
She did so by reaching the finals of the Australian and French Open that year, but was famously mocked by Serena Williams, who many felt was the true best player in the world during that period.
In an interview at Wimbledon, when asked if she felt like the real world number one, she joked: “I think if you hold three grand slam titles maybe you should be number one, but not on the WTA Tour obviously.
”It’s shocking. I’d definitely rather be number two and hold three grand slams in the past year than be number one and not have any.”
Did Dinara Safina ever come close to winning a Grand Slam title?
Despite Serena’s mockery, Safina did get painfully near to winning a Grand Slam title on three occasions, as briefly touched upon.
Sadly, she failed to convert any of those chances, joining Marcelo Rios as a star who reached world number one without winning a major title.
She came much closer than the Chilean though.
Those 2009 finals in Melbourne and Paris saw her beaten by Serena and Svetlana Kuznetsova respectively, and came the year after she had lost her maiden Grand Slam final, this time to Ana Ivanovic at Roland Garros.
Safina is widely seen as one of the best players, certainly on the WTA Tour, to have never won a major.
