She needed a tough match. She got one. There was some of this...
... and some of this...
... and finally some of this...
I love how she always looks kind of sheepish when she wins a match like that.
Vika came out and took more games off Dina in 23 minutes than Dina had previously lost in the entire rest of the tournament. It was ridiculous, who serves 93% and has 1 unforced error? That's not normal. All credit to her, though, it was one of the cleanest sets of tennis I've ever seen. It was also entirely obvious that she wasn't going to be able to keep it up, but when you've gotten in a Safin's head, you rarely have to keep being perfect in order to win. Dina looked a little shocked, as if perhaps skipping directly from a first-round quality match to the quarterfinals was a step or 18 too far. If it were Marat, Vika would have won in straights. (Okay, mental image. Hilarious.) However, it was Dinara, so it all ended like this for Vika:
(Dance Recital Fail)
Way to keep it together, Dina. Also, how awesome is it when she wins a match and her press conference is all "Urrrrrrrghhhhhh... I suck!" Pretty fucking awesome. Ha.
