Svetlana Kuznetsova hopes to end her habit of finishing second by winning Pacific Life Open
2004 U.S. Open champ hopes to end her habit of finishing second
Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia practices during the Pacific Life Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Thursday. Kuznetsova was runner-up in the 2007 Pacific Life Open.
(Marilyn Chung, The Desert Sun)
INDIAN WELLS - If anything, losing gets harder for Svetlana Kuznetsova to accept as she gets older.
She knows she is a better player today than she was in 2004, when she defeated fellow Russian Elena Dementieva in the final of the U.S. Open for her only Grand Slam singles title. But back then, she says, she simply wasn't thinking about what she was doing on the court. She just did it.
"There was no expectation," said Kuznetsova, who fell in the finals to Daniela Hantuchova last year at the Pacific Life Open, her best finish in the desert but the second of five finals disappointments in 2007. "I had a good stroke, and there were so many good matches in a row. I played perfect tennis."
Over the next two years, Kuznetsova started thinking too much about her game, she said. She began to accept pressure to succeed.
If overthinking and pressure defined 2005 and 2006, then 2007 and, so far, 2008 have to be defined by how close she has come to winning titles, and how many times she has been stopped just short.
Kuznetsova fell short in five of six finals appearances in 2007 - her lone singles title of the year came as a top seed at the Pilot Pen Tennis in New Haven. Outside that, she fell in the finals at five events, including the U.S. Open and Pacific Life Open, both hardcourt tournaments suited to her game.
"I hate to lose," Kuznetsova said. "I'm a competitor big time. It brings me down for one, two days after a loss. But then I have to find strength to keep improving and keep trying."
The parade of runner-up finishes, though hard to swallow, boosted her WTA ranking to No. 2 by the end of the year. Days after her finals loss in Indian Wells last March she rose from No. 4 to No. 3.
Rankings aside, Kuznetsova says she hates losing now even more than four or five years ago.
"I think it's because my expectations are even bigger, and I know I can do better than losing 90 percent of the time," she said. "I'm a perfectionist. I never push fault onto anyone else. I say, 'yeah, I did this, that bad. I have to do this better.'"
Four events into 2008, Kuznetsova has two more runner-up finishes, at the Medibank International in Australia and most recently the Dubai Tennis Championships. She is the second seed at the Pac-Life, where she says she loves the courts and the bounce of the ball.
"It suits my game so much," she said.
That, and Kuznetsova finds herself in what might be the softest side of the main draw, though she says she tries not to pay attention to who she'll be playing beyond the next round.
Fellow Russian and No. 8 seed Dinara Safina represents the strongest challenge through the quarterfinals, after which the winner will face the loaded Hantuchova-Sharapova bracket in the semis.
"I feel every year that I know more and more everyday what I do on the court, and I can do more things," Kuznetsova said. "Another thing I have to work is myself. You know, I focus on the court and less ups and downs. That's my main goal."