Svetlana Kuznetsova stuns Varvara Lepchenko in the opening round – Portugal Open 2013
Former world number two, Svetlana Kuznetsova, received a wildcard entry to Portugal Open and stunned everyone in the opening round’s play. The Russian veteran registered an upset victory over the sixth seeded American, Varvara
Lepchenko, on Monday. The final score line settled at 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-2, in favour of Kuznetsova, granting her a spot in the pre-quarter-final rounds of the WTA clay court tournament.
It was the first meeting between these two veterans and it took two hours and 34 minutes to conclude the stiff contest. Kuznetsova was off to a sloppy start in the opening set of the match but kept trying hard to get under the
skin of the world number 27, Lepchenko. Both contenders battled extremely hard and dragged the opener into a tie-breaker round after the scores got dead locked at 6-6. Lepchenko proved to be the better player under pressure and she cruised through the decider
to seal the first set at 7-6(2).
Tide turned in the following set when Kuznetsova broke the American serve to get in the driving seat. Lepchenko had four priceless break opportunities but she squandered all of them carelessly, eventually paying the price. The
Russian wildcard entrant wrapped up the proceedings at 6-3 to level the set scores at one-all.
A fierce battle was witnessed in the final set of the match, with a total of six break points being registered from both sides. Lepchenko broke the Russian serve twice but four cracking breaks of serve from Kuznetsova left the
American hot favourite deserted in the end. Kuznetsova came out as the winner at 6-2.
"It was a very difficult match against Varvara today," Kuznetsova said. "I had a lot of ups and downs, as she did too. The conditions out there were very tough and it wasn't easy to play. I just tried to keep going, keep pushing,
and in the end it went my way, so I was happy with that. Just that I kept trying. I really didn't like my game today! It's great. It was my mistake not to enter the tournament. I really appreciate the tournament giving me a chance to play."
Marion Bartoli is leading the players’ field in Portugal, with Dominika Cibulkova the second seed and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova being the third seeded contender in the draw.
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