January 01, 2008	Tuesday	Zilhaj 21, 1428

PERTH, Dec 31: France’s Tatiana Golovin believes she is ready to break into the world’s top 10, providing she can stay clear of the injuries that have halted her progress over the past four years.

Though the Russian-born Golovin finished the three years from 2004 inside the top 30, it was not until 2007 that she made a significant breakthrough, winning her first two career titles and finishing at a career-high 13th.

From the moment she became a regular on the WTA Tour in 2004 as a 16-year-old, Golovin’s talent has never been in question.

But a succession of injuries, mostly to her ankles, have stilted her progress and she has still only reached one grand-slam quarter-final, at the 2006 US Open.

After the way she played in the second half of 2007, however, that could change, starting with next month’s Australian Open.

“I really want to focus on the grand-slam events this year because I have not done that well in them yet,” Golovin said at the Hopman Cup in Perth, where she and Arnaud Clement are representing France.

“I had a good year last year, but it seems like every time I have started to play well, I have got injured. Hopefully I can stay healthy and play well.”

Golovin, who turns 20 next month, won her first two WTA Tour titles in 2007, in Stuttgart and Portoroz, Slovenia and reached two other finals late in the year, losing to world number one Justine Henin in two tight encounters.

After a short spell with former world number one Mats Wilander, Golovin began working with Glenn Schapp, who has coached Nadia Petrova and Dinara Safina, in December.

“I feel really good,” she said. “I got a knee injury in November and then had three weeks off. We did a couple of weeks of conditioning work and I’m really looking forward to the year.”—Reuters