Svetlana Kuznetsova has managed to clinch the Kremlin Cup

Svetlana Kuznetsova has managed to clinch the Kremlin Cup by defeating her compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the title match in the Russian capital Moscow.

It was a cake walk for Kuznetsova which was expected considering the fact that her opponent had been playing some non-stop Tennis prior to this game and she had even admitted in the pre game interview that weariness was going to be a major factor for her.

Seeing Pavlyuchenkova’s movements, one could easily figure out that she was not match fit and was out there just to go through the motions. She was finding it extremely difficult even to keep her serves.

For the first few games in the first set, it was all in balance with the scores being equalized at 2-2, but, after that, Kuznetsova came into her own claiming 9 games in a row.

It was the first tournament that Kuznetsova won this season, while, fifteenth in her career.

Kuznetsova, who was very close to becoming the no. 1 player in the world in 2007, has won two Grand Slams so far, but, in the recent past, she has not impressed at big stages, getting removed at early stages in many of the majors.

The last time that Kuznetsova had won a Slam was in 2009 when she had lifted the trophy at Roland Garros. That was quite a while back. There’s not been much joy for her fans ever since as she has struggled for consistency. Continue reading Svetlana Kuznetsova has managed to clinch the Kremlin Cup

Svetlana Kuznetsova will not take any further part in Citi Open

Svetlana Kuznetsova will not take any further part in Citi Open that is currently going on in Washington DC.

Kuznetsova had beaten Sanaz Marand in the opening game that she had played in the tournament and was set to take on the local girl Sloane Stephens in the Round of 16, but, ahead of that, she damaged one of her legs and had to withdraw.

The 30-year old Russian native announced her decision with a statement that was put on the official website of Citi Open the previous evening.

Kuznetsova’s words were, “I really want to apologize to everyone for doing this, but, I think my fitness is not at the level it should be for me to be able to play the next game. So, the best thing at this point of time is to pull away.”

Kuznetsova versus Stephens could have proved to be a cracker of a game, but, obviously that is not going to happen now and the latter would make it straight to the quarters.

Kuznetsova has not been at her best in too many tournaments this season.

She has been in the title round once i.e. in the Madrid Open, but, only to be defeated by the Czech player Petra Kvitova there.

In the big tournaments in particular, Kuznetsova has seen herself getting knocked out pretty early and that has resulted in her going down in the world rankings by quite a few positions.

She is out of top 20 in the official WTA rankings at the moment. Continue reading Svetlana Kuznetsova will not take any further part in Citi Open

Svetlana Kuznetsova will find Serena Williams at the opposition end

Svetlana Kuznetsova will find Serena Williams at the opposition end when she turns up to play her fourth round match at Miami tomorrow.

These two players have hardly played against each other in the last couple of seasons.

Kuznetsova would be highly confident ahead of the showdown just because of the way she beat Angelique Kerber, an experienced German player, in her previous match.

Kerber was chipping away quite nicely there in that fixture, but, Kuznetsova made a late resurgence and ended up on top to set a date with Serena.

Serena, on the other hand, did not have a tough competition in round no. 3 as she had to deal with a qualifying teenager CiCi Bellis.

Though Bellis is much hyped around, but, at 15 years of age, to tackle Serena was just too much of ask for her.

As far as the rivalry between Serena and Kuznetsova is concerned, there are 9 matches played between them so far and as one would expect, most of them have been won by the former.

Serena has toppled Kuznetsova in 7 of those games and has been beaten in 2. Continue reading Svetlana Kuznetsova will find Serena Williams at the opposition end