French Open defence looks unlikely for Kuznetsova
If Svetlana Kuznetsova’s poor form on clay in the lead-up to the French Open is anything to judge by, the Russian’s chances of defending the title she won at Roland Garros last year appear slim.
Kuznetsova began the clay-court season by sinking without a trace at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. As defending champion, she was defeated in her second round match by China’s Li Na, who after reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open in January had hardly been in blistering form herself and entered her first clay-court tournament of the spring coming off three consecutive first- round losses on the hard courts.
There was to be no improvement for Kuznetsova at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, where she lost her opening match to Russian counterpart and world No. 37 Maria Kirilenko, before bowing out to Israel’s Shahar Peer in the first round of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open.
That makes a not-so-grand total of one win (a 6-1, 6-2 victory against world No. 385 Katarina Srebotnik in Stuttgart) from four matches on dirt courts as the world No. 6 prepares to defend her Roland Garros crown.
This time last year, as Kuznetsova marched towards the second Grand Slam title of her career, she’d been the titlist at Stuttgart (where she defeated Elena Dementieva in the semi-finals, and then world No. 1 Dinara Safina in the final) and runner-up in Rome (defeating top-10 players Jelena Jankovic and Victoria Azarenka on her way to the final, where Safina turned the tables from Stuttgart).
Admittedly, the 24-year-old concluded her preparation for last year’s French Open with a loss to Alona Bondarenko in her opening match in Madrid, but after reaching the final of the two previous tournaments that just provided Kuznetsova with a little extra time to recover and reach peak condition for the clay court major and begin her assault on the title as one of the form players on the WTA Tour.
As it turned out, it was Kuznetsova and the white hot Safina (who also won the title in Madrid) who extended their winning form all the way to the final in Paris.
It will now take a massive turnaround in form for Kuznetsova to even come close to a maiden Grand Slam title defence.
History provides no more cause for hope than form either. After winning the US Open title in 2004, Kuznetsova returned to Flushing Meadows the next year with two second round losses sandwiching a first round exit in her three previous tournaments and promptly became the first defending champion in women’s singles at the US Open to lose in the first round, to a player ranked as world No. 97 at that.
Kuznetsova will be hoping to avoid a repeat of that effort at the French Open this year, but there’s little reason to get excited about a possible title defence at Roland Garros based on her current form.
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