2015 has not been unfolding well at all for Svetlana Kuznetsova. She is still looking to get a win under her belt this year.
She has played two tournaments so far and has suffered first round exit in both of them, losing to not so known players.
In the Apia International Sydney Tennis tournament, the 29-year old lost to Madison Keys of America, while, the other day in Auckland, she had to taste defeat at the hands of the Czech player Lucie Hradecka.
Kuznetsova was the 5th seeded player there in Auckland and was supposed to cruise through the first couple of rounds. And, the kind of tennis she actually played at the start against Hradecka, it seemed the match could well be over in straight sets, but, no, that wasn’t the case to be.
Some great character shown by Hradecka during the tie break in the second set saw her being able to equalize the scores in terms of the no. of sets won by each player.
It was all down to decider thereafter and the momentum was with Hradecka by then because of the way she had clinched the previous tie break, but, still, Kuznetsova, being more experienced, was the favourite.
However, the motivation was lacking a little bit in Kuznetsova during that crucial phase of the game by the looks of it. Her play was slightly lacklustre. She was just not up for it in the decider one can say.
Hradecka was good enough to latch on the mistakes committed by her opponent and she ended up creating an upset at the end.
It perhaps was Hradecka’s biggest victory in the singles category. She is a doubles specialist and focuses mainly on that. She does not opt to play singles that much.