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Svetlana Kuznetsova will play against her countrywoman Ekaterina Makarova in the second round of the Sony Open tomorrow.

Kuznetsova made her way into the second round with a straight set victory over Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain. Kuznetsova defeated Lino by 6-3, 6-3.

On the other hand, Makarova got a bye in the first round. So, tomorrow’s match will be her first match in the tournament.

Kuznetsova is a very popular player in USA. The first Grand Slam tournament that she had won was the US Open in 2004.

The hard courts suit Kuznetsova’s style of play. She is a power hitter and there are very few players in the world who hit the ball as hard as her. Her record on hard courts has been astonishing.

In the ongoing season, Kuznetsova’s performance has been average. She hasn’t played outstandingly, but, she hasn’t played poorly either.

She has reached the quarterfinals of a couple of tournaments in this season. The last tournament in which she had participated was the BNP Paribas Open. She was defeated in the third round of that tournament by Marion Bartoli of France.

Makarova has also not done anything extraordinary in this season. She hasn’t looked at her peak in most of the matches. As far as style of play is concerned, she is also a decent hard court player. She plays superb ground strokes and is generally very good on her serve as well.

Makarova is currently higher in world rankings than Kuznetsova. She is at no. 20, while, Kuznetsova is at no. 45.

This will be the third encounter between these two Russian players. Both of them have won one each so far. The last match played between these two players was three years back in 2010.

Svetlana Kuznetsova continues to move up in the world rankings after making her comeback at the start of this season.

Kuznetsova had to remain out of action in the second half of the last season because of an injury in her right knee. After being defeated by Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium in the first round of the Wimbledon Championship, Kuznetsova didn’t play any match in the last season. Continue reading COMEBACK QUEEN

Svetlana Kuznetsova has defeated Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the second round match of Apia International Sydney Tennis tournament. Kuznetsova won the match by 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-2. This was a very tight match and went on for 3 hours and 47 minutes. But, at the end, Kuznetsova’s tremendous power hitting proved to be too much for Wozniacki.

Kuznetsova started well in the opening set. She broke Wozniacki’s service in the third game and then, enhanced her lead with a serve hold in the next game. At the end of the fourth game, Kuznetsova was ahead by 3-1.

Kuznetsova’s lead didn’t last long. Her service was broken in the 8^th game and the scores got levelled. The next four games went with the serve and the set went into the tie breaker. Wozniacki managed to grab just four points in the tie breaker and lost the first set.

But, in the second set, the Danish superstar bounced back brilliantly. In the first two games, both the players held their service. But, after that, Wozniacki went berserk. She got three consecutive breakthroughs and won the last five games in a row to win the second set by 6-1.

In the final set, Kuznetsova gave Wozniacki the first blow in the very first game. Both the players held their service in the next five games and at the end of the sixth game; the score was 4-2 in the favour of Kuznetsova. The Russian player broke Wozniacki’s service for the second time in the set in the seventh game and then, finished off the encounter with an easy serve hold in the 8^th game.

In the post match interview, Kuznetsova said, “The way Wozniacki played in the second set, I thought it was going to be tough work for me in the final set, but, all of a sudden, she lost her concentration which allowed me to run away with the match.”