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Svetlana Kuznetsova’s countrywoman, Maria Kirilenko, has been knocked out of the Wimbledon Championships 2013. She suffered a straight set defeat against the British youngster Laura Robson in the opening round yesterday. Robson won the match by 6-3, 6-4.

It was a superb all round performance by Robson. She entered the match in an attacking mood and just took the match away from Kirilenko.

Kirilenko’s world ranking is much higher than that of Robson and she was not supposed to struggle against the British player. But, that didn’t happen. Kirilenko wasn’t even close to her best. She never managed to get into a good rhythm.

In the post match interview, Robson said, “This was the first time I was playing against Maria and I was nervous. Fortunately, I got a good start and that calmed me down. I lost my concentration towards the end of the second set, but, I bounced back in time and managed to finish it off.”

In the first set, the first 7 games went with the serve and at the end of the 7^th game; the score was 4-3 in the favour of Kirilenko. The Russian player managed to sneak a breakthrough in the 8^th game and then, by serving out the next game, she clinched the opener by 6-3.

In the second set, there were no breakthroughs in the first couple of games and the scorecard was showing 1-1 when the 2^nd game got over. After that, Robson went berserk for a while. She won the next 3 games consecutively with the help of two breakthroughs and took a lead of 4-1.

Kirilenko pulled things back a little bit with a serve break in the 6^th game and a serve hold in the 7^th game. But, that was too little, too late. Robson easily won her next two service games and finished off the proceedings.

In the next round, Robson will take on Mariana Duque of Colombia.

Svetlana Kuznetsova has been defeated by Angelique Kerber of Germany in the third round of Mutua Madrid Open. Kerber won the match in three sets by 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.

It took Kerber more than a couple of hours to register her second victory over Kuznetsova in 3 matches.

In the post match interview, Kerber said, “In the first set, Svetlana was playing great tennis and it was hard to compete against her. I was really under pressure when the second set began. I decided to take it game by game and tried not to lose my focus.”

“I am happy that I managed to win today, but, I certainly need to start better in my next match. You can’t always recover after losing the first set.”

In the first set, both the players had a steady start. The first five games went with the serve and Kuznetsova was leading by 3-2 when the 5^th game ended.

Kuznetsova broke Kerber’s serve in the 6^th game and then, enhanced her lead to 5-2 with a serve hold in the next game.

The Russian player just needed to win her next service game to seal the set and she had no difficulty in doing that. She won the opener by 6-3 and put her opponent under tremendous pressure.

In the second set, Kerber again had a poor start. She dropped her serve in the very first game, but, after that, she lifted the standard of her game considerably and broke Kuznetsova’s serve thrice to win the set by 6-4.

In the third and final set, Kerber was looking confident right from the start. She got a breakthrough in the 2^nd game to get ahead by 2-0. However, she lost the advantage soon as she was broken back in the very next game. Kuznetsova held her serve in the 4^th game to level the scores.

The next seven games went with the serve and the score was 6-5 in the favour of Kerber at the end of the 11^th game.

The German player broke Kuznetsova’s serve again in the 12^th game and that was the end of the match.

In the next round, Kerber will lock horns with Ana Ivanovic of Serbia.

Svetlana Kuznetsova’s countrywoman, Nadia Petrova, has defeated Dinah Pfizenmaier of Germany in the first round of Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 2013. Petrova won the match in straight sets by 7-6(2), 6-4. It took the Russian player 103 minutes to get better of her German opponent.

Petrova who is currently at no. 11 in the official rankings of WTA hadn’t faced Pfizenmaier before. So, she didn’t have much idea about her style of play and probably, because of that, she looked a bit tentative in the opening set. But, after having a bit of look at the style of her opponent, she adjusted accordingly and won the second set easily to move into the final 16.

In the post match interview, Petrova said, “In the first set, she was fantastic on her serve and it was hard to get a breakthrough. I didn’t lose my shape in the tie breaker and managed to get the first set in the bag.”

“Then, in the second set, she got just a little bit nervous and that allowed me to take the set away from her.”

“I think Dinah is a fine, young player and she will turn out to be a big superstar one day.”

It was certainly not a perfect performance by Petrova. She got a total of 7 break chances in the match and she wasted 5 of them. She could convert only a couple of them in the second set.

However, one thing that Petrova did well in the match was that she didn’t serve even one double fault. She also didn’t commit too many unforced errors in the match unlike her 21 years old opponent.

In the pre quarter final round, Petrova will lock horns with the Serbian superstar Ana Ivanovic.

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.”