Svetlana Kuznetsova finds form to win San Diego title
Four championship points may have went begging along the way, but Svetlana Kuznetsova fought her way back onto the title-winners list for the first time in 2010 with victory over Agnieszka Radwanska in the final of the Mercury Insurance Open.
The dual Grand Slam champion has until now had, it’s fair to say, an underwhelming 2010 – the quarter-finals at Eastbourne her best result before San Diego and her third round exit from the French Open as defending champion and second round loss to 74th ranked Anastasia Rodionova at Wimbledon two of the lowlights.
The upshot was that Kuznetsova dropped out of the top-20 for the first time since 2004, but she’s made an emphatic return thanks to this victory, jumping seven places to a current ranking of world No. 14.
And while it was her victory over the ever-consistent Radwanska that ultimately secured Kuznetsova the title, a first round win over eighth seed Yanina Wickmayer and semi-final victory against fifth seed Flavia Pennetta meant the Russian entered the final in strong form.
What should have been a straight sets victory, however, became a bit trickier for the former world No. 2 when she squandered four match points in the second set tiebreak, which Radwanska ultimately won, before Kuznetsova regrouped in the third to win the final 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3.
“It was a big relief to win, because it had been such a long time since my last title, also because of losing the second set like that," Kuznetsova said after the match.
There were no such problems for top seed Caroline Wozniacki in the final of the E-Boks Sony Ericsson Open in Denmark, with the local defeating seventh seed Klara Zakopalova 6-2, 7-6(5) to claim the title, her second of the year, in the inaugural staging of the tournament.
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