Svetlana Kuznetsova, the
18 year old talent from St. Petersburg, Russia, introduced
herself to the tennis world at the US-Open girls
competition in 2001 where she won the title, and it seems
like she liked the feeling of getting cups. Only one year
later, still only 16, she won 2 WTA-trophies! And though
neither Helsinki nor Bali are the most famous tournaments
she beat players like Patty Schnyder, Sucha, Chladkova,
Krasnoroutskaya, Sanchez-Vicario and Conchita Martinez on
her way to those titles!
If that start of her career should remind some of you to
the start of Jelenas career, her game doesnt at all.
Svetlanas first serve is alright, but her second serve
reminds the spectators more to a throw in at football as
to a serve in tennis. And also her weapons are different
to Jelenas. In fact: beside her savety on court, and the
abiltiy to run down shots and bounce everything back which
comes across the net, she has no weapons at all.
And it was exactly those abilities, where both Schiavone
and Majoli found no proper way to play against, and so the
russian no6 proceeded to the second rounds of Dubai and
Doha at early stages this year. But reaching second rounds
is certainly not the career-target of Svetlana. At Indian
Wells she beat the top-russian player Anastassia Myskina
in 3 tough sets to reach for the first time in her career
a third round of a tierI tournament, and only one week
later at the Nasdaq 100 Open, she had the honour to play
the worlds most talented player for the first time in her
career and lost to Jelena 6-7 and 1-6 :-)
The european clay court season was not Svetlanas, but at
Wimbledon she stormed into the quarterfinal where she only
lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne, and it was Justine again,
who stopped her next run at the Accura Classics, where the
1.74 meters tall girl reached the semis!
Svetlana Krznetsova already reached position no 26 in the
WTA ranking system, and it seems that only Top 10 players
are able to beat her on fast courts, as the list of the
girls who beat her on either hard or grasscourts in 2003
sounds like a list of the "who is who" in womens tennis:
V. Williams (Australian Open), Capriati (Dubai), Justine
Henin (twice) and Jelena....
Lets hope i can fit that word in brackets behind Justine
Henin, behind Jelenas name in my next preview, too :-)
Last i found a funny fact which could give us some hope:
It looks like if Svetlana looses to a player she doesnt do
it only once! She is 0-18 (!!!!) in junior matches to
Maria Arkhipova, who is also 18 years old, but nowdays not
even ranked in the WTA :-)
--
Gerhard
www.jelena-dokic.com
