MONTRÉAL, Canada - It has been a season of resurgence for Svetlana Kuznetsova. The 21-year-old Russian returned to the Top 10 after a scintillating title run in Miami, and shortly afterwards reached the second Grand Slam final of her career at Roland Garros. Now, she begins her summer hardcourt campaign at the Rogers Cup presented by National Bank in Montréal, Canada, and brings us all along for the ride in the latest Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Player Blog.
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Friday, August 18, 2006
Hi everyone,
I felt good going into my match today against Martina Hingis and we had some good rallies, but unfortunately I lost, 76(4) 63. I'm disappointed, because today was the key match of this week, and if I had closed it out in the first set it would have been a different match. But I wasn't really seeing the ball that well, it was also my first night match in a while, so it was tough.
But, I am trying to take positives from the loss. I felt confident after my first matches, and I was in control with the match in my hands. I'm looking forward to working hard on things, and I know one day it'll pay off. It was nice having on-court coaching this week; it helped during the match, you feel very good to have someone you know coming out to see you on the court.
I think Martina is playing really well. Even though when I play her it depends on me a lot, she's playing very consistently, and it's very interesting to play her. It's good to have her back. She's really friendly and I get along well with her.
So to wind down tonight I might just have a glass of wine and relax, then have an easy day on Saturday, and leave for New Haven. On Sunday I'll start practicing for New Haven. I'll probably play my first round on Monday because I'm up against a qualifier.
Then I'll go to the US Open, where I won my first Grand Slam two years ago. Things are much different now than they were then. There are lots more top players, all very motivated, to face. I'll just have to play match by match, and if I play well I believe I can beat anyone. And I'm playing much more consistently this year than I was when I won it, and that has a lot to do with me being much more mature. Now, I realize and think about every move I make. I've played a lot of tournaments this year and I've done really well at a lot of them.
I'll remember a lot of things about Montréal, especially the Sean Paul and Mariah Carey concert I went to earlier in the week. Also, all the Japanese restaurants.
I feel very good about writing this week's blog. I love connecting to my fans and I'm always happy to do something new like this. I was happy talking to all you guys. I hope you've gotten to know me a little bit better, and hopefully I'll talk to you all again soon. Without all of the support from all my friends and fans, I wouldn't be where I am now.
Best wishes and God bless,
Svetlana
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Thursday, August 17, 2006
Hey everyone,
I'm really happy with my win today; I beat Ai Sugiyama, 62 76(6). This kind of match was good for me, competing in such a close match, and I was very happy to finish it in two sets. Ai started to play very well in the second set; I was serving 5-6 and 15-40 and she had set points but I still won that game. I'm happy I could play well on those important points. It would be nice to play better at some other moments but I'm still happy with the win.
By the way, I didn't have a chance to use it today but I'm very happy about the electronic line-calling. Here it's only on Center Court, and I played on an outside court today. I agree completely with using it. We've got to keep introducing new things. Also, on-court coaching is going to bring in more fans. It's all good.
I knew Ai would be tough so I had to prepare well this morning. It's important to eat well the morning of a match. Although I would love to eat omelettes in the morning, especially with mushrooms, ham and cheese, I usually don't feel too good after eating that. So normally I eat a lot of yogurt, and Special K cereal. Sometimes that's what my friends call me, Special K. I have it every day! I was thinking of putting it on my shirt, but I might get in trouble with the company.
Before the match I was listening to Deja Vu by Beyoncé and Jay-Z again. I also listened to this DJ Mix of R&B in the car on the way here. Like I said yesterday, music gets me motivated and that helps me become more serious in practice, more focused. But I accidentally left my mp3 player in the gym; a few people were kind of making fun of me because they thought I wouldn't know what to do without it, but I always have another one so I'm all set.
Yesterday I said I might watch a movie and I sort of did. A little while ago I went to Russia for holidays and I bought like 40 movies with my best friend Anna, actually she bought more like 50-60 movies. Anyways, one of them is actually a TV series from Russia, it's about seven or eight DVD discs, and I am so addicted to it. Whenever I have free time I find myself watching it. It's like a movie, but broken up into smaller parts. It's a love story about a girl falling in love with her boss, but he's married and the manager of this clothing company; the girl starts off not very pretty but then gets so much make-up on her and that's where it all starts. In English I think the title of it would be "Not Born Ugly" or something like that. It's pretty addictive.
Something else from last night I want to talk about, which wasn't good at all, was Kim Clijsters' injury. It's too bad what happened. I always try to support the other players, especially if it's a friend of mine, and I really feel very sorry for her because she has been so unlucky with injuries the last few years. She's an amazing athlete and an amazing player. We practiced at the beginning of the tournament and it was such good tennis. She was one of the favourites here. I pray she is going to be able to play the US Open.
I might watch a little bit of tonight's match between Martina Hingis and Daniela Hantuchova. I play the winner in the quarterfinals tomorrow. My coach will definitely watch it. But I really want to get back to the hotel, get a massage, and watch more of that show I was talking about. There's not too much left! Maybe I'll see some of the match on TV. But I try not to watch too many matches when I'm in a tournament. When you play and then watch it's easy to start getting a bit tired of it. But still, tonight's match should be good so maybe I'll watch a bit.
It'll be a tough one on Friday. The last two matches I've been playing great in the first set but things have been getting a bit complicated in the second. Tomorrow hopefully I'll play well consistently through the whole match.
I'll talk to you guys afterwards!
