Warning: Watching Safina play tennis can raise your heart rate

Dinara Safina turns up the heat at a cooking demonstration--she's cooking in Paris, too

In Berlin, Dinara Safina came back from a set down in the third round to beat then-world number 1 Justine Henin. In the semifinals, she came back from a set down to defeat Serena Williams, and in the final, she came back from a set down to defeat Elena Dementieva. In the third round of the French Open, she kept the drama going by coming back from a 6-7, 2-5 near-defeat, and again, from a break down in the second set tiebreak, to beat Maria Sharapova.

I thought that the Sharapova match would be the thrills-and-chills highlight of the tournament, but Safina was not finished creating drama. Today, she appeared physically exhausted in her quarterfinal match against Elena Dementieva, and her shot selection was often less than intelligent. She lost the first set (of course) in a tiebreak, and was down 2-5 (again) in the second set. But when Dementieva served for the match, Safina broke her. She held, then broke Dementieva when she served for the match a second time. After saving a match point, Safina barely held it together in the next game, and then failed to capitalize on two set points in the tiebreak. She did win that tiebreak, though, with a crack backhand down the line.

The third set was all Safina. By this time, she was practically radiating adrenal energy, and she stopped playing Dementieva's game by changing the pace more and looping the ball, denying Dementieva the speedy balls she loves to hit. Dementieva made a variety of unforced errors, and--though she saved a couple of match points--the match was over.

According to the commentators on Radio Roland Garros, Safina is the first person in the Open era to save match points in two rounds. I don't know if that is a reference to the French Open only, or to all the majors.

The sometimes hot-headed Safina smacked her racquet on the court once, then--to keep from getting a penalty--smacked it on her shoes. And in possibly the first case of flower abuse in tennis history, she also used her racquet to shave the blooms off of several geraniums in a courtside flower box. The feisty Russian then picked the petals out of her racquet and carried on.