Svetlana Kuznetsova will take on Shuai Peng of China in the second round of the ongoing US Open.

Kuznetsova has made her way into the second round with an easy win over the local girl Mallory Burdette. She outclassed the American youngster in just 92 minutes.

The last few months have been pretty tough for Kuznetsova. She was looking in good form in the French Open and had reached the final 8 stage, but, she got beaten by Serena Williams there.

Thereafter, she picked up an injury and couldn’t take part in the Wimbledon Championships. She got recovered in a few weeks though and made her comeback by playing in a couple of hard court tournaments prior to the US Open, but, she couldn’t do well in either of them.

Kuznetsova’s opponent Peng has also not been in the greatest of forms off late. She had reached the title round in the Brussels Open which was played towards the end of May, but, after that tournament, her form dipped down.

In the opening round here at Flushing Meadows, Peng was up against Yvonne Meusburger of Austria and she got better of her with ease. She served brilliantly and was solid from baseline too.

Peng would know that she has a great chance of upsetting Kuznetsova here as the Russian player isn’t at her peak at the moment.

These two players have faced each other 5 times before and Kuznetsova has a lead of 3-2. But, the last couple of matches between these two have been won by Peng and the Chinese player can take heart from that.

It would be a tight contest as there is no lack of potential in either of these two players. Kuznetsova might be the favourite due to her experience, but, she will have to play really well to make it to the third round.

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.