TENNIS ROLAND GARROS – The French Open is perhaps Svetlana Kuznetsova’s favourite tournament. She got to the finals in 2006 and won the title in 2009. This year, she makes it 10 of 12 French Opens where she has survived to the second week with an epic win over Petra Kvitova 6-7 6-1 9-7. Cordell Hackshaw
Interviews, Results, OOP, Draws from the Roland Garros
The French Open is perhaps Svetlana Kuznetsova’s (27) favourite tournament. She has made it to the 4th round or better 9 of the 11 French Open championships she has played. She got to the finals in 2006 and won the title in 2009. This year, she makes it 10 of 12 French Opens where she has survived to the second week with an epic win over Petra Kvitova (5) 6-7 6-1 9-7. In a match that saw Kvitova served to stay in it and win it twice and Kuznetsova simply reckless with break and match points, this 3 hour and 13 minutes battle was worthy of being a final and not as it was, a third round encounter. “I knew I was going out there, and I was going to give everything I could and run every mile, every meter I could, and put as many balls back, be aggressive…I left out there everything I could. And, yeah, I mean, I come up with a win, you know, but I was very close to the loss, as well” Kuznetsova said after the match. This was also Kuznetsova’s first win in 4 tries over Kvitova.
It was very clear from the onset what Kvitova’s plan was for this match. She was going to be aggressive from the baseline and keep her opponent from getting into the forecourt. Kuznetsova put it as such, “Petra was inside the court and I was next to the fans.” This worked as the Russian was left scrambling for most of the early games. Kvitova had a 3-1 lead before she saw it evaporated by the deft defensive skills of Kuznetsova. With one player being supremely offensive and the other very defensive, a tiebreaker was inevitable as both players came up with some amazing shots as well as brainless errors. Kvitova remained the aggressor in the breaker and raced to a 6-3 lead and then with an ace took the 1st set 7-6(3). Kuznetsova came raging back by taking the 2nd set 6-1 in 37 minutes after Kvitova took a medical time out at the start of the 4th game to deal with a hamstring issue. The Czech’s movement was hampered on the court for a bit as she lost 4 straight games.
In the 3rd set, Kvitova rebounded and took a 2-0 lead with an early break but Kuznetsova was relentless. She was well aware of the brand of tennis Kvitova was capable of producing. “I have to put as many balls back as I could to try to be consistent, because Petra made some unbelievable shots. Sometimes it’s just out of my hand to do something. So what I could have, what I could have and could put more balls in the court, this is I have to take my chances, my possibility.” Kvitova had 49 winners to 26 from Kuznetsova. However, the Czech was error prone with her aggressive baseline tactic, committing 65 errors for the match compared to 20 from her Russian opponent. This saw Kuznetsova back in the set at 4-4 but she continued to squander break point opportunities. She would only convert 8 of the 25 chances she saw to break. However, Kvitova was far tidier in that arena; she broke for a 5-4 lead and serve for the match. The Russian would not go down without a fight. Kvitova noted “She put almost everything back, and it was very tough to win that.” Kuznetsova broke Kvitova to level the set 5-5.
Kvitova began to make more errors and Kuznetsova was throwing her entire weight behind her shots now and got to 6-5 forcing Kvitova to serve to stay in the match. Kuznetsova would see two match points disappear with amazing forehand winners from Kvitova’s racquet and it was 6 games all. Perhaps it was the memory of those wasted opportunities that still lingered for Kuznetsova that saw Kvitova broke her for 7-6 and serve for the match a second time. Kuznetsova soon shook off the memory of those lost chances and created three more break chances to get back even in the set. Kvitova saved two of those break points but the amazing defensive skills of Russian saw her converting on the third one to get to 7-7. Kuznetsova held serve to once force the Czech to serve to stay in the match. Kvitova could not rise to the challenge a second time. She double faulted for the 11th time to bring up match points and then overcooked the forehand to be broken at love to hand the match to Kuznetsova 6-7 6-1 9-7. “It was really a big fight from both of us. I think that both of us showed great tennis out there…[I]t was very close, few points, but that’s the tennis…[I]n the end she really played well,” Kvitova said after the match.
Kuznetsova spoke about her next match up against another left-handed Czech player Lucie Safarova. She mentioned her excitement to play such a talented player. She added that Safarova has been playing well all year pushing top players at tournaments and did not expect it to be an easy match. When asked about winning here in Paris again she said, “I just try to play my best, and you never know how it will go. This is my one favorite tournament, I can play very well here. Just focus on the net. Many other girls are playing extremely well, and you never know who can win the title.”
