Svetlana Kuznetsova defeats Daniela Hantuchova in the fourth round – French Open 2011
A remarkable show of athleticism by world number fourteen Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, who came back from the brink to beat Caroline Wozniacki’s conqueror Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia with a 6(6)-7(8), 6-3, 6-2 score and advance
to the quarterfinal of the Roland Garros on Monday.
The upset trail was in the air but Kuznetsova refused to be a part of it and rallied from a set down to beat the Slovakian tennis ace in two hour and seventeen minutes. Kuznetsova made a bad start to the match and lost her serve
early on to give Hantuchova a quick lead. An immediate break back did help the Russian to take the set into a tie-breaker but one more break of serve gave Hantuchova the opening set 7-6.
Despite spilling out seventeen unforced errors, the Russian still managed to take down her opponent in the last two sets with a 6-3, 6-2 score line. She amazingly compensated her high number of unforced errors by firing eighteen
winners and a number of 106 points in total.
The Slovakian had her chances to serve out the set but again she played a poor game, with sixteen unforced errors gifting Kuznetsova a chance to bounce back, and after the Russian converted her three breakpoints to move 5-2 up
she was finally able to serve out the match.
Kuznetsova racked up her fourth round victory by virtue of 67 percent of points in total, 48 percent of points on return against three double faults. In contrast, her opponent remained behind in every field with a meager winning
percentage of 59 percent on her first serve, 36 percent on return and a number of 84 points in total.
Kuznetsova was in wonderful form and amused her fans with some great shot making and gusty play. Hantuchova on the other hand was completely unable to hold onto her consistent baseline hitting which resulted in her grinding defeat.
Kuznetsova put in top quality performance to ensure her berth at the quarterfinal of the Roland Garros. No doubt Hantuchova started the match vigorously and had plenty of break chances during the process but she was unable to convert them on time. From then
on Kuznetsova was on top, powering the ball to Hantuchova’s forehand, who was unable to last the pace and allowed her higher ranked opponent to dominate with her game.
Kuznetsova, emerging victorious today, has improved her year-to-date win loss mark to 21-11. The Russian will next face world number eleven Marion Bartoli of France in the quarterfinal of the tournament. Kuznetsova and Bartoli
will be meeting for the fourth time in their career when they square off on Tuesday. All of their clashes have been contested on hard courts and Kuznetsova leads their head-to-head series to 2-1.
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