Kuznetsova best in Paris, back to Moscow!
Published 08 June, 2009, 02:11
Svetlana Kuznetsova has brought the French Open championship trophy to Moscow.
The tennis trophy would have ended up in the Russian capital even if she had lost though, as she was playing against fellow-Russian Dinara Safina.
A jubilant Svetlana Kuznetsova arrived at Moscow Sheremetievo airport on Sunday, where she was met by friends and family.
The tennis player said she found it emotionally difficult to compete against her compatriot, Dinara Safina.
Before the Roland Garros kick-off, Safina and Kuznetsova were regarded as the most likely finalists. After Safina topped the women’s rankings in April, she has won two tournaments on clay, losing only once … to Kuznetsova.
The latter had already tasted Grand Slam victory, winning the U.S. Open in 2004, while Safina had only two Grand Slam finals in her pocket.
Kuznetsova’s experience seemed to be dominating Safina’s power in the beginning. While Safina kept on making errors and double faults, Kuznetsova was more accurate and pragmatic. She broke Safina three times, while Dinara managed to break back only twice. All that resulted in Safina’s losing the first set 6-4.
The second set turned even more tenacious. Both were getting a share of the cake until Kuznetsova made another break to take a 4-2 lead.
In the next game Svetlana even let herself entertain the public, playing a brilliant piece of football during the break between her serves. She took this game in style and put Dinara on the verge of defeat.
Safina was fighting desperately on her serve, but again her nerves got her into trouble – she made a double fault on match-point and gave the match to Kuznetsova.
So Kuznetsona claimed it in straight sets – 6-4, 6-2.
The legendary Steffi Graf, who won six French Open titles, presented the trophy as the two Russians pocketed $1.5 mln and 750 thousand respectively. And in the process, confirmed Russia's ladies as being the dominant force in women's tennis.
After the match, the head of the Russian Tennis Federation, Shamil Tarpishchev, noted that both of the players have made their home country proud:
“I’m very happy for Svetlana because she played her best game of the last three years. And I'm very happy for Dinara, who is ranked number one in the world. This victory, I believe, will move Svetlana to number 3 in the world rankings, and she might even fight for number one now. The more Russian tennis players fighting for the number one seed, the better it is for our tennis. Russian women’s tennis is recognized as the best in the world,” he said.discuss it Show comments (1)
