PARIS — Few players go on such extended journeys of self-discovery as Svetlana Kuznetsova did before winning her second Grand Slam title.
But it’s a good thing she did, or else she might be out of the game altogether, back in Russia, still wondering who she is and why she ever picked up a racket.
But the 23-year-old never stopped searching for answers to why she hadn’t won a Slam in nearly five years and could rarely close the deal in finals. And now, she’s a two-time Slam champion after her 6-4, 6-2 stomping of top-seeded Dinara Safina in the French Open final.
She received some sound advice from Marat Safin, Dinara’s older brother, as well as a guy she barely knew – Roger Federer. More than a handful of coaches, friends and family members have spun words of wisdom her way, but she wasn’t absorbing it.
“Sometimes people get mad with me because they tell me things over and over and I never listen,” Kuznetsova said. “Sometimes you need a point to get to you, but sometimes someone else who you look up to, they tell you a small thing and your reaction is ‘Yeah!’ It could be the same, but different words.”
That advice came at the ‘08 Beijing Olympics, when she approached Federer with some members of the Russian women’s basketball team because they wanted to get a photo taken with him. He graciously agreed and then Kuznetsova laid out her woes.
“I was talking to him about the problems I had,” Kuznetsova said. “He was listening, and I said, ‘Look, I want to move from Spain. I want to go to Russia. I don’t know what to do.’ He said, ‘Look, you can only depend on yourself. You can control it. It’s in your hands.’”
The results didn’t come quickly, but after spending nine years training in Spain, away from her family and friends, she wanted to reconnect with her homeland and be around folks who are more like her. As much as she still loves Spain and credits her former coaches for laying the foundations of her game, she felt like she needed a big change.
She sure did. After winning her first major at the ‘04 U.S. Open, her results have defined sporadic. Since that time, she had reached 21 finals, and only won six of them, not exactly a Hall of Fame resume.
Last year before the French Open, she was ready to pack it in.
“It’s been very tough times for me, especially before the French Open last year,” she said. “I said a few times I want to quit playing tennis. I never felt it…Everything was on top of me, and I had to take this decision finally to leave Spain. For me, it was big.”
Kuznetsova did move back to Moscow, but she didn’t immediately find the form that saw her stomp Lindsay Davenport and Elena Dementieva for the U.S. Open crown. She hired a new coach, Russia’s Olga Morozova. Although Morozova motivated her, Kuznetsova said that there was a generation gap and she couldn’t do what her coach was asking of her.
“I’m 23 and she’s 60 and sometimes she wanted me to do things I can’t and I would say, “I’m not like that.” We couldn’t communicate. I knew I was different than that.”
After winning Stuttgart over Safina in late April, Kuznetsova hired Larisa Savchenko to help her for the rest of the clay-court season. With a young team that also included her trainer, David Caro, and her hitting partner, Alexander Krasnorutsky, she became more relaxed.
“If she’s calm, we’re calm,” Savchenko said. “When she’s smiling, we’re smiling. She’s a great player. She was ready for the situation.”
That situation included a tough French Open draw, but one where she was able to prove to herself that she wouldn’t gag under pressure.
It wouldn’t be the same Kuznetsova who dropped two match points against eventual champion Anastasia Myskina in ‘04, who pushed two weak backhands while holding match points against Justine Henin in ‘05, or who was whipped by the gritty Belgian in the ‘06 French final.
This was a Kuznetsova who kept belting forehands, moving her feet and closing on the net in a three-set win over the capable Pole Agnieszka Radwanska in the fourth round, who came back from a break down in the third set to face down 10-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams in the quarters, and who kept in check the powerful Australian Samantha Stosur in another close three-setter in the semis.
So on the day of the final when she walked on court against Safina, who owned an 8-5 record against her going into the match, she felt free to impose her game. She consistently wrong-footed her foe, played very steady, and was much faster and ready to swallow up every short ball.
She trusted her shots and easily dispatched the world No. 1 who collapsed under the pressure of her third Grand Slam final in the past 13 months.
“I came out there and said, ‘Everything’s great,’” Kuznetosova said. “I’m just doing my thing I love. I’m enjoying. It’s my passion, what I’m doing. It’s my job. And I cannot ask for more.”
Safina was extremely depressed after the victory and rightly so. In many ways, she’s been the tour’s most impressive player over the past year, but all of her outstanding play in between the majors, and impressive quarter and semifinal victories at the Slams went for naught.
Although she’ll retain the top spot at least until July 20, she has yet to win a set in a Slam final, falling miserably to Ana Ivanovic at the ‘08 French, to Serena at the ‘09 Aussie Open, and then against Kuznetsova, missed one open sitter after another and double faulted on match point to hand the match to her one-time junior friend and foe. During the second set, she screamed at herself, “Why you such a chicken!”
After the contest ended, Safina smashed her racket into the soft red clay.
“It was the pressure I put on myself because I really wanted to win. I just didn’t handle it,” Safina said. “I was a little bit desperate on the court, and didn’t do the things that I had to do. Didn’t stay tough mentally.”
Kuznetsova re-entered the top five and without question, she showed that her U.S. Open title was no fluke. She believes she’s a more grounded person and has found her emotional center of balance. She was so focused during her victory that even two hours after her win, she hadn’t celebrated widly. But she understood the significance of the win and without a doubt, it will be some time before anyone can label her a second tier player.
“Didn’t happen just by luck,” she said. “To have two Grand Slam trophies, it’s big. I’m really happy, and nobody one can (take that away) from me.”
