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