The holly hot celebrity Dinara Safina struggles to justify top billing at Wimbledon

The big question in the women’s game was always going to be whether Wimbledon would provide the platform for Dinara Safina to win her first grand-slam tournament. But after her sticky 6-3, 7-5 progress yesterday, that question seemed a little presumptuous. Every woman in the draw has a lower ranking than the Russian but more than a few are in better shape.

As Safina serves she looks worth every inch of her status as the world No 1. Her service action

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has a point of stillness that is meditative and soothing. As she lifts her face to the sky she seems to be making a quiet, confident offering of the ball to the gods. Wonderful things should then happen, obviously. The tournament’s No 1 seed should glide effortlessly towards the touch of

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silverware, grand-slam titles should be showered upon her broad shoulders. Instead she is rewarded with consistency.

Consistency is tough to beat, certainly, but it lacks a certain aura. On No 2 Court, the spectators, faced with a choice of cheering a player with a world ranking of 100 or one with a somewhat controversial elevated seeding status, opted to support Rossana De Los Rios. De Los Rios did not

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let them down. She lost, but in every other sense emerged with her reputation enhanced.

The Paraguayan is 33, has a 12-year-old daughter, wears the shortest skirt possible and with her sunglasses, vest and visor looks as if she is about to go skateboarding outside her house in Miami, Florida. In the sixth game of the first set she was penalised for a foot fault and asked,

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cheekily, if she could challenge the decision. Some in the crowd looked at the big screen, expecting to see a graphic of De Los Rios’s legs. Maybe one day that replay will be available. Maybe one day Safina will learn to wear the tag of top seed more comfortably.

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