Svetlana Kuznetsova; a Rising Tennis Star
Born on June 27, 1985 in St. Petersberg, Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova is a Russian tennis player. The young professional tennis player defeated Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva in the 2009 French Open singles and 2004 US Open respectively to win the titles. At the 2006 French Open as well as the 2007 US Open, the tennis star finished off the tournaments as runners up. Svetlana lost on both the occasions to Justin Henin who is a Belgian player. Svetlana Kuznetsova is ranked World No. 19 as of June 7,2010.
Svetlana was born in Leningrad. Her father coached cycling as well as Olympic champions. The tennis star was initially interested in cycling but later lost interest. At a very young age of 13, Svetlana went to Spain for tennis training and coaching, where she learned the Spanish language. However, Svetlana did not manage to impress the Spanish Tennis Federation who did not see her as a future champion.
In 2000, Svetlana began to participate in tournaments. The Russian player won her first ITF circuit title in April 2001. Later during the same year in May, she played at Madrid Open as her main draws of the tournaments for the first time. Svetlana also appeared in the Waikoloa Champions but lost in the second round and ended the year with a career ranking of 259 in the world.
At the 2002 Australian Open, the Russian player made her first appearance in a Grand Slam. The 16th seeded Iroda Tulyaganova defeated Svetlana in the second round of the tournament. However, later on at the French Open as well as Wimbledon, the Russian player was knocked out in the qualifying rounds of the tournament. By beating Denisa Chladkova, in the final match, Svetlana won her first singles title on the WTA Tour. She reached the final match of the tournament after defeating Patty Schnyder in the quarter finals. As a result of this win, the Russian tennis player jumped into the top 100 list for the first time in her career.
After beating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario as well as Conchita Martinez in Indonesia, Svetlana won her first Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic in the month of September ending the year as World number 43. Also, during 2002 she won her first WTA doubles title along with Sanchez Vicario her partner in Poland, Sopot, Japan and Helsinki.
The start of 2003 was not a perfect one for her. The second seeded Venus Williams defeated Svetlana in her first round of the Australian Open tournament. During the first half of 2003, the Russian player did not succeed in reaching the quarter finals of any tournament that she played. However, Svetlana came back strongly in the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells by defeating Anastasia Myskina in the second round.
Svetlana made her way into the first quarterfinal match of a Grand Slam tournament by defeating Maria Sharapova in the fourth round at Wimbledon and ended the year as World number 36.
During 2004, Svetlana reached the Australian Open third round, and made her way into the Doubles final of the Grand Slam tournament. At the Dubai Tennis Championship, Svetlana defeated Venus Williams in the quarter final match. At Qatar Total Open in Doha, the Russian tennis player for the first time in her career defeated Justin Henin in the semi final match of the tournament but lost to Anastasia Myskina in the finals. During the same year, Svetlana also reached her top 20 ranking for the first time.
Svetlana has grown as a player with time. From 2004 onwards, she has won a Singles as well as a Doubles rubber in the Fed Cup, Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic in Bali, Indonesia, US Open, Tier I Nasdak-100 open in Miami, Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament, Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and Toray Pan Pacific Open.
If the Russian player follows the same winning streak, she will surely shine for many years to come in the world of tennis.
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