A bad back has caused Dinara Safina to withdraw from January's Brisbane Invitational. This isn't her first encounter with this problem unfortunately. She withdrew from the WTA championships this past October. She believed she would be ok for the Brisbane tournament, as she made evident by signing up for the it only two days later.

It's sad to see the former No. 1 sidelined by such a frustrating injury.


Avoiding injury is a crucial part of any professional sport. There have been countless instances of athletes with a great amount of potential whose careers have been cut short due to injury. Just take the case of Olympic gold metallist Miloslav Mecir who was forced to retire at the age of 26 because of a back injury. Who knows how great his career could have been.