Today was always going to be a tricky one for me.
It was on the face of it a win-win situation: My #1 pick for the event, with her best chance yet of ridding herself of that 'real #1" baggage. Versus a lady I've made no efforts to conceal my admiration for since the inception of this blog, the most naturally gifted player IMO since the departure of Henin, who'd been in what I now hope will be the last trough of her tennis career since winning her first Slam at the US Open in 2004.
"What do you mean you want this thing back already!?"(Photo: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
She's got no one but herself to blame of course, but to come unstuck in three Slam finals (two of which she had a good chance of winning) within the space of 12 months must make her feel very low indeed.
She looked a little shaky from the outset, but didn't make that bad a start - just not as smooth and controlled as Sveta. Her serve however really let her down today, and her game began to unravel rapidly from early on in the second set, in a way from which she never really recovered.
The most painful image of the final has got to be the sight of Dinara staring desperately towards Zeljko, her eyes almost imploring him to tell her what to do. But props are due to Zeljko, ever the consummate professional, doing nothing more than nodding his head in support - how many coaches would be out of their seats, issuing those dodgy hand signals to their charge in their moment of crisis?
(Photo: LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images)As Justine Henin once said (who never once used the facility even though it was available to her), if you can't use the facility at the Slams, then what's the point of getting used to it outside of them?
Hope Dinara's not too downcast. She might remember that she didn't stumble upon the world #1 ranking by accident. Arguments about her style of play and 'quantity over quality' are largely redundant, as they may be applied to this comparatively weak generation as a whole: she's at least as deserving of a Slam as Ivanovic was.
She may not be more talented than her opponent on the other side of the net today, but it's surely only a matter of time, is it not, before she bags one of these things herself?
And in Zeljko she seems to have found the perfect partnership to make that dream a reality. For tonight, dust yourself off and go find Marat. Shoot some pool or watch some feel-good movies with him. I think he's still in town.
But major props, hearty congrats and a specially animated mention must go to Sveta. The final itself was insignificant. The greater victory comes in the journey she's taken to get to this point. I knew that kick serve and effortless shotmaking were too good to waste away!
Some say the first Slam came too quickly for her - the woman that came through on Chatrier today was a different person to that immature, braced teenager that stormed to victory five years ago.
And the maturity showed, in the calm, controlled way in which she went about the match , the way she didn't wildly celebrate when Safina served that ghastly double fault at Championship point (didn't even smile in fact) , through to the understated and dignified way she delivered her victory speech, demonstrating to me that she may finally be coming to terms with her own worth.
She'll still have her wobbles of course. I daresay she wouldn't be Sveta if she didn't. I just hope they now come in the form of the odd set dropped here and there (she played her share of three setters here), rather than those inexplicable lapses that caused her to mentally check out of entire matches in the past.
Couldn't have happened to a nicer person.
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