Tag: Kuznetsova

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.