COMEBACK QUEEN

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.

Because of that, she had moved down to no. 89 in the world rankings at the end of the last season, but, in the ongoing season, she has performed consistently so far and has now moved up to no. 46.

She made her comeback by participating in the Apia International Sydney Tennis tournament in January. She performed quite well in that tournament and managed to reach the quarter final round where she was defeated by Angelique Kerber of Germany and was knocked out of the tournament.

After that, Kuznetsova took part in the Australian Open and did quite well in that tournament as well. She made her way into the final 8 where she had to face Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. She lost the match against Azarenka in the straight sets. To be fair, no-one had expected to her get as far as she did – there was even a Unibet bonus bet that fans could take up on her simply winning a single set against Azarenka, with very generous odds.

The next tournament in which Kuznetsova participated was the Qatar Total Open. She won her first couple of matches in that tournament before being defeated by Samantha Stosur of Australia in the third round match.

Kuznetsova is currently participating in the BNP Paribas Open which is being played in Indian Wells, USA. She has started well in that tournament as well. In the first round match, she has defeated Andrea Hlavackova of Czech Republic in the straight sets by 6-3, 6-1. In the second round, she will face Jelena Jankovic of Serbia.