Svetlana Kuznetsova 2011

The longest names continue to outshine the biggest in Sydney. On Wednesday, Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova and Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski continued their runs through the Medibank International with quarterfinal victories.

Kuznetsova defeated her second straight seeded player, edging No. 8 Na Li 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 just one round after upsetting No. 4 seed Samantha Stosur. Kuznetsova is in her first semifinal since Montreal last August, and is looking for her first victory since San Diego.

Jovanovski, a qualifier for the event, took down Flavia Pennetta 7-5, 7-5, just one day after Pennetta upset No. 2 Vera Zvonareva. Jovanovski, ranked 77th entering the tournament, is in her first ATP tour semifinal. She has never won a tour title. She'll gain at least 200 points by reaching this level, which would send her to a new career-high ranking.

Svetlana Kuznetsova 2011
Svetlana Kuznetsova 2011
Svetlana Kuznetsova 2011
Svetlana Kuznetsova 2011
Svetlana Kuznetsova 2011
Svetlana Kuznetsova 2011

Svetlana Kuznetsova Tennis

Famous female tennis player Svetlana Kuznetsova is a Russian born tennis professional who is currently ranked third in Women’s Tennis. She has won two tennis Grand Slam singles titles during her career and has been runner up in other Grand Slam finals. She is a reigning French Open champion and she also won the US Open title in 2004. Kuznetsova was a runner up in the French Open in 2004 and Us Open in 2007. She has born to a coach father who has coached five world and Olympic cycling champions. Kuznetsova could not keep up with her winning streak in year 2008 where she reached only two finals. She kept losing to seeded players and ended as World No. 8 at the year end which made her the only women tennis player to be among top ten best female tennis players with no title. The performance of Russian tennis player Kuznetsova improved in year 2009 when her ranking improved to 3 but she could not retain this ranking and fell to World No. 27 in year 2010 which is her lowest career ranking.

Svetlana Kuznetsova Tennis
Svetlana Kuznetsova Tennis
Svetlana Kuznetsova Tennis
Svetlana Kuznetsova TennisSvetlana Kuznetsova is an all-around tennis player who can play good tennis on any kind of surface, be they grass or clay courts. Her strong game depends on her powerful services and heavy forehand shots. Svetlana’s services are generally aided by her strong physique and she is considered to be one of the most powerful women along with the two famous tennis players Venus and Serena Williams. It has been accepted by many tennis experts that her inside-out forehand shots are the best in the world. Svetlana can play winners from both wings. Svetlana has effective volley shots and she is also effective providing a deft touch. The footwork applied by Svetlana makes her game stronger and she is considered to be one of those rare players who can move and play on any type of court.
Svetlana Kuznetsova Tennis
Svetlana Kuznetsova Tennis
Svetlana Kuznetsova TennisHamburg - Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova moved back up one place to third in the women's tennis rankings released Monday by the governing body WTA.

Belgium's Justine Henin remains top with 6,105 points from Serbian Ana Ivanovic with Russia's Maria Sharapova up one place to fourth.

WTA top 10 as of April 14 (previous ranking in brackets):

1. (1) Justine Henin, Belgium, 6,105; 2. (2) Ana Ivanovic, Serbia, 4,157; 3. (4) Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia, 3,905; 4. (5) Maria Sharapova, Russia, 3,876; 5. (3) Jelena Jankovic, Serbia, 3,770; 6. (7) Anna Chakvetadze, Russia, 2,665; 7. (6) Venus Williams, United States, 2,586; 8. (8) Elena Dementieva 2,305; 9. (9) Serena Williams (USA) 2,296; 10. (10) Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakia, 2,257. (dpa)

Svetlana Kuznetsova

The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings do not lie: there are five Russians in the top ten, two Serbs and a Slovakian, with no western Europeans, no Australians, and only Venus and Serena Williams, placed sixth and seventh, flying the Stars and Stripes.

The old order is not changing in women's tennis, it has changed. And unless one of the Williams sisters prevails again at Wimbledon, the odds are that the champion's name will end in a vowel, or an -ic. Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, currently ranked first and second in the world, might have raised the curtain on a new Serb-dominated era - the seven-year -ic, if you like - but those five Russians will not easily yield their places at the top table, nor will those behind them in the rankings rest until they get there, and Svetlana Kuznetsova, the world number four and 2004 US Open champion, tells me why.

Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Kuznetsova“We look at other countries and they have it so easy,” she says. “In Britain, the first girl who hits two balls in, they give her everything. In Russia, to be a star you have to be in the top ten. Nobody knows you if you are not, so your goals must always be very high. I was talking to Maria Kirilenko (ranked 19th in the world) about this. She used to take the train and then the metro for three hours to practice. Then she'd hit for two hours and travel three hours home. My family didn't have much money either, maybe $300 a month. In the winter in Russia I played inside a balloon but it was zero degrees, and we couldn't afford to heat it. There was no money, no budget, only your family were helping you. It is still the same. If you go to a junior tournament in Russia, the Russian girls are so focused. In England it is completely different. It's like a holiday for them.”
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Svetlana KuznetsovaWe meet on the players' terrace at the Qatar Telecom German Open, where she is destined to exit in the third round. At Roland Garros a few weeks later, she cruised through to the semi-final, but was well-beaten by her compatriot Dinara Safina. This week, top-seeded on grass in the Eastbourne International Women's Open, she was surprisingly knocked out in the second round, by the rising star from Denmark, Caroline Wozniacki. None of this augurs well for Wimbledon, where Kuznetsova, this year's fourth seed, has never got past the quarter-finals. But she is a Russian, and Russians, as we know, are made of unperishable stuff. Moreover, she comes from unusually driven stock. Her father, Alexandr Kuznetsov, is one of the world's top cycling coaches, and among his star pupils was her mother, Galina Tsareva, six times world champion and holder of 20 world track records. Her older brother Nikolai was a silver medallist in the team pursuit at the 1996 Olympic Games. She was born to compete.

But on a bike, not on a tennis court. “My dad was very strict coach,” she says, by way of explanation. “He doesn't want his guys to get involved in any relationships when they cycle, so he chose to train men only. When I started to grow up he had to decide whether to open his women's group again for me, but he said no, do something else. He made a joke. He said tennis earns more money. It was a joke because money never mattered to him, only results.”