Dinara Safina knows she has the temper of a tiger and is capable of blowing her stack at any moment.

At times bothered by her last name and emotional DNA, forever compared to her mercurial brother Marat Safin, six years her elder, Safina is used to being asked whether she'll ever be able to settle down enough to let her talent trump her tantrums.

Tomorrow (Monday) she'll have to pass her tougher test when playing world No.1 Maria Sharapova for a place in the quarter-finals of the French Open.

'One thing Safina seems to have going for her is the attitude that she doesn't necessarily know it all'


"It's every year, new phase of my career,'' she says in rapid-fire English. "I guess I'm a little bit more experienced, so hopefully I will not do the mistakes that I've been doing before. That's the only thing I hope. And I hope it's (the) new me. God knows'' (laughing self-deprecatingly).

Safina, 22, won the biggest title of her career in Berlin two weeks before arriving in Paris. Her path to the championship led through the then No.1 Justine Henin in a match destined to be the last before Henin's stunning retirement. Safina beat the Belgian in the round of 16, then polished off Serena Williams, promising up-and-comer Victoria Azarenka and Elena Dementieva. Unfortunately she missed Rome with a back problem.

Safina appears to have carried the momentum into Roland Garros, where she's seeded a lucky 13th. While several other top players have struggled, she dropped just five games in her first two matches and after a brief lapse in the second set, dispatched Chinese qualifier Zie Jheng 6-2, 7-5 in the third round on Saturday.

That propelled her into an intriguing clash with top seed Sharapova. In 2006, when the same two women met at the same point in the tournament, Safina scrambled out of a 5-1 deficit in the third set to win 7-5, 2-6, 7-5. Safina and Sharapova have only played once more since then, in Los Angeles two years ago; Sharapova leads their career series 3-2.

The comeback against Sharapova was hailed as a breakthrough at the time. But in what has become a familiar pattern to those watching Safina, she crumbled in her next match, squandering a 5-1 first-set lead of her own to Svetlana Kuznetsova and getting shut out in the second set.

Safina ended 2006 just outside the top 10 at No.11 and started strong the following year. After she beat Martina Hingis in the finals of the Gold Coast tournament in Australia, Hingis delivered this endorsement: "Everyone's going to have to watch her, because she's going to be even better than her brother. She definitely doesn't have as much touch, but she has more will and desire.''

There's that comparison again. Nearly six feet tall, lean and muscular everywhere except for her cherubic face, Safina's power is undermined by a curious tentativeness at times, fueled by self-doubt.

One thing she seems to have going for her is the attitude that she doesn't necessarily know it all, despite coming from a family steeped in the sport. Her parents own a tennis club, her mother is a respected coach and she had a ready-made trailblazer in former world No. 1 Safin.

"I think, can you learn every day something new,'' she said. "There is nothing that is going on in this world that you cannot learn. Also on court. It's not only by hitting forehand, backhand, maybe just understand game a little bit more. To read a little bit more the game, kind of my behaviour on the court. It's little details that I still have to improve a lot.

"I need at least a little bit to hide my emotions. I'm still learning, but still have to work on it. But at least a little bit I'm improving.''

Watch out for the Russian tiger because she could win a major at any time from now on!