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Kuznetsova not going to London as a Reserve

Russian tennis ace Svetlana Kuznetsova has made it clear that she will not travel to London as part of the tennis contingent of Russia as reserve player, in spite of her selection for that role.

The President of the Russian Tennis Federation had made it clear that the 27 year old would be a reserve player for the 6 member tennis contingent for the London Olympic Games, expected to be led by Maria Sharapova, the third ranked female tennis player in the world. Continue reading Kuznetsova not going to London as a Reserve

Kuznetsova could have outside chance

Three months into another predictably unpredictable season, the former  world number two Sevetlana Kuznetsova  split with coach Olga Morozova and hired former pro Amos Mansdorf as her new coach.  Although the Russian has slipped to number 26 in the world she remains a distinct possibility of winning in Paris at this years French open.

The reasons for this are that despite an up and down year,  the two-time Grand Slam champion beat former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic on red clay in the Fed Cup semifinals, before a poor performance in the final. Kuznetsova seems to lift her level against higher-ranked foes to gain traction on dirt. She’s 2-4 versus top-20 opponents this season after going 5-10 against top-20 players last season. Despite this it has been over two years since her last successful tournament.

Consistency has been the twenty six year old biggest concern, and she’s prone to flakiness and frustration under pressure. But the 2009 French Open champion has reached at least the quarterfinals in five of her past six appearances in Paris; she can alter the spin, speed and height of her shots and owns the variety that plays well on clay. Thus with some momentum and the continuation of strong performances against the top player, Kuznetsova may be able to recapture her form to challenge for a grand slam victory.

Despite this after a first round defeat in the Italian Open in Rome to Ana Ivanovic, and a two year slump in ranking and performance, it would seem to early in her recovery to the top of the game for a grand slam victory, although with a French Open victory in 2009, there is potential for her to turn back the clock.

FOCUS ON KUZNETSOVA

Svetlana was born in the year 1985 and is a Rusian professional Tennis player. Svetlana has not got much luck when it comes to the game o tennis. As of April 9, 2012 Svetlana Kuznetsova ranks number 27 while in the Women’s Tennis Association singles and number 27 in the doubles ranking of the same league. Apart from all of this, Svelana Kuznetsova appeared and participated in four grand slam singles and and won two of them while took part in seven double matches winning again only two of them.

In the year 2004, Svetlana Kuznetsova won her first grand slam award.  This award made her the third Russian women to win the title after Maria Sharapova and Anastaisa.  The second grand slam that Svetlana won was in the year 2009.  In the year 2011, Svetlana Kuznetsova’s first tournament was theASB Classic Open In Auckland. Immediately after this Svetlana shifted to Sydney for the  Medibank International Sydney.  In the Australian Open Svetlana Kuznetsova was seeded 23rd. and she lost in the fourth round to Shiavone.  This match was considered to be the longest match in the Open era among women grand slam matches.  The next tournament that came up was the Dubai Tennis Championship. However not only did Svetlana lose here in the top seed but also in the Qatar open  Svetlana lost against the eight seed.

After receiving a wildcard, Svetlana Kuznetsova seeded second at the 2011 Andalucia Teenis experience.  This time she moved to the semi finals but again lost against qualifier Irina Begu.

KUZNETSOVA STARTS CAMPAIGN

Svetlana Kuznetsova, the Russian tennis player is expecting to be 4th time lucky here as she tries to break her ‘jinx’ when the main draw of the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open starts at the Dubai Tennis Stadium, tomorrow.

Kuznetsova, the losing finalist of last year had also made it to the end stages in the year 2004 and also in 2008, but she has not won a title year. Yesterday evening, the 2 time grand slam winner stated at the official draw ceremony of the event that apart from coming here and enjoying the warmth of the sun, it would be nice to go one better and win the title.

Attending the main draw was executive vice-chairman Colm McLoughlin, senior vice-president of corporate communications Salah Tahlak and vice-president of Tennis Emirates Abdul Rahman Falaknaz and WTA Supervisor Donna Kelso.

She said that she loves it here, particularly when the temperatures back home are minus ten and even minus twenty-seven, last week. She loves to spend a lot of time in Dubai during pre-season preparation too, and she is expecting that she can come up with a better performance this year. There is no secret, but just continue doing harder and harder on court and hopefully one day the title will be her.

Kuznetsova starts her campaign against Julia Goerges of Germany. Kuznetsova was one of the 3 tennis players present at the main draw with her 8th seed Jelena Jankovic and her compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

McLoughlin told that it is celebratory time for tennis, this year, due to the 20th anniversary celebrations. There will be an air of great excitement around the Dubai Tennis Stadium and the growth of tennis here has been in tandem with the growth of Dubai Duty Free.

KUZNETSOVA LOSES OUT

18th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was involved in a thrilling match with Sabine Lisicki, who somehow fought back from a set and two games down to claim the victory on Saturday.

Kuznetsova will look back on the third round match and wonder how she let her dominant position slip, but Lisicki must take a lot of the credit for such a spirited performance. The Russian closed out a scrappy first set in just 28 minutes, which saw the opening 5 games all go against the serve, before Svetlana managed to hold hers and continue to break her opponent.

The second set look destined to be similar when Kuznetsova built up a 3-1 lead over the 14th seed with an early break. But at this point the German raised her game and broke back in both the 6th and 10th games to claim the second set 6-4.

The match was building up into an intriguing third set, and again it was finely balanced at the start of this set. However, in the fourth game, Kuznetsova carelessly double faulted to hand her opponent the opportunity to break her serve, and the nerves got to her as she fired a forehand long. Lisicki broke again in the 6th game only to be broken back instantly, but the German was composed enough to take her 7th break of serve to win the final set 6-2.

The comeback was one of the best so far at this year’s Australian Open, but Kuznetsova will be disappointed not to have taken the opportunity to win against an opponent seeded only four places above her in the competition. The Russian has performed poorly at the grand slams in the past year, her best result in 2011 being an appearance at the quarterfinals of the French Open, which she won in 2009. The 26-year old is still capable of some fantastic tennis, but needs to regain some of the confidence that was evident during her best period when she broke through as a young star in 2003 and 2004.

Svetlana Kuznetsova Hires New Coach

Former women’s tennis world number two player Svetlana Kuznetsova has hired a new coach ahead of the upcoming calendar season of 2012 in an attempt to crack the top ten of the world ranking once again. The Russian, who has been a Grand Slam winner on two occasions has not been having the best of times on the court over the last few seasons and almost fell off the radar after becoming one of the top tennis players in the world in the middle of the decade.

Olga Morozova, who has been the coach of another Russian tennis player Elena Dementieva as well as some British juniors, has been hired by the Russian to take her back to glory. Morozova had coached Kuznetsova for a brief spell during the 2008 season but it was not confirmed either by the player or the coach’s representatives whether the team will work together permanently or this is only a temporary solution. Svetlana Kuznetsova reached a career high world number two position in September 2007 after winning the 2004 US Open title and followed it up with success in the French Open in 2009.

But since then, Kuznetsova was nowhere near the top 10 and was overshadowed by the emergence of young players like Carolina Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka and Petra Kvitova. She is currently ranked outside the top 20 in the WTA ratings, sitting in the 21st position as she is gearing up for the first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open.

The last couple of years has seen her change coaches plenty of times, experimenting with a new coach but this time, she has gone back and hired someone she has worked with before and Svetlana Kuznetsova is hoping that this new partnership can get her back to the top 10 by the end of the season.