Safina in the form to repeat brother's glory

The Russian player Dinara Safina is in impressive form ahead of her bid for honours at the Australian Open.

A shoulder injury means Maria Sharapova will not defend her title, but that does not mean the crown will not return to Russia again in two weeks. The world No 3 Dinara Safina has a powerful game and her impressive performances in Sydney this week show she is in good form and capable of pushing for a last four spot at the very least. The younger sister of Marat Safin, who won the Men's Australian Open title in 2005, has been on to of her game this year in her run to the Sydney final, where she was beaten by her compatriot Elena Dementieva.

Safina, 21, has the potential to trouble the Williams sisters with her groundstrokes, and given that she is in the other side of the draw to the American duo she will fancy her chances of getting to the latter stages, with possible clashes with Ana Ivanovic in the last eight and Jelena Jankovic in the last four both winnable. If she can keep her nerves in check the Olympic champion Dementieva can also win, though her tendency for allowing her game to fall apart when under pressure counts against her.

Her victory in Sydney, which as well as beating Safina saw her beat Serena Williams, sees her arrive in Melbourne as the form player on the WTA Tour. But whether she can do it when it matters is a big concern as she is almost certainly going to have to beat both Williams sisters if she is going to win her first grand slam. The seventh and eighth seeds, Vera Zvonareva and Svetlana Kuznetsova should both impress, but with both facing awkward potential last eight encounters against Jankovic and Serena Williams respectively.