Background and career
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova (born 27 June 1985) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and No. 3 in doubles by the WTA. During her career, Kuznetsova won 18 singles and 16 doubles titles, including two singles majors at the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open, and two doubles majors at the 2005 and 2012 Australian Opens. Kuznetsova first took part in a WTA Tour event in 2001. Her first major title came at the 2004 US Open over compatriot Elena Dementieva, making her the third Russian woman to win a major. Kuznetsova's second major singles title was the 2009 French Open, defeating compatriot Dinara Safina in the final. At the 2006 French Open and the 2007 US Open singles tournaments she was the runner-up, both times to Justine Henin, raising her to a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2. After 2010, Kuznetsova's results declined, but slowly recovered through 2016, when she re-entered the top ten and reached the semifinals of the WTA Finals. She retired from the sport in 2021. Kuznetsova was also successful in doubles. She won her first five career doubles titles with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario. Partnering Elena Likhovtseva, she climbed to No. 3 in doubles in 2004. She won the Australian Open twice in doubles, in 2005 alongside Alicia Molik and in 2012 partnering Vera Zvonareva.
Kuznetsova was born in Leningrad. Her father, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, coached five Olympic and world cycling champions. Kuznetsova's mother, Galina Tsareva, is a six-time world champion and holder of 20 world records in cycling, and her brother, Nikolay Kuznetsov, was a silver medalist at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and coach of the Russian cycling team Lokomotiv. Kuznetsova never showed interest in cycling, but rather tennis. She liked watching tennis from an early age, preferring men's over women's tennis. "I had posters in my room of MaliVai Washington, Marcelo Ríos, and (Yevgeny) Kafelnikov. It's very weird but this is who I liked. Later I was a big fan of (Marat) Safin.", she said. Kuznetsova began to play tennis at the age of seven, and moved to Spain six years later to receive better training and coaching. While there, she became fluent in Spanish.
Kuznetsova debuted in her first ITF Circuit tournament in Mallorca on 31 January. In the first round, she defeated Katia Altilia from Italy in straight sets, 6–0, 6–4. However, she lost in the quarterfinal to Oana Elena Golimbioschi. Her next appearance was in Talence in April. She defeated Aurore Desertin in the first round, but lost in the second round to Berengere Karpenschif, both from France. In Minsk, Belarus, in a tournament using the short sets scoring system, she reached the quarterfinal, after defeating the unranked Vera Zvonareva in the first round in four sets, and Daria Panova in three sets in the second round. In the quarterfinal, she lost to 574th ranked Elena Voropaeva in four sets, after losing two tie breaks in the two earlier sets. However, Kuznetsova was ranked in the top 900, receiving her first ranking of 889 during the week ending 20 November 2000. She moved to Mallorca again and lost in the first round to Dinara Safina after winning the first set. Her last tournament of the year was again in Mallorca, but now played in a minimum of four sets. In the round of 32, she defeated Silvia Disderi. However, she fell to eighth seeded Mihaela Moldovan in the last round. She ended the season ranked 889.
Kuznetsova began playing in tournaments on the ITF Circuit in 2000, winning her first title on the circuit in April 2001. Her first appearances in the main draws of tournaments on the main WTA Tour were at the Madrid Open in May of that year and at the Waikoloa Championships in September, losing in the second round on both occasions. She finished the year 2001 ranked 259. Kuznetsova made her major main-draw debut at the 2002 Australian Open, where, as a qualifier, she reached the second round, before losing to 16th seed Iroda Tulyaganova. However, she previously lost in the qualifying rounds of both the 2001 French Open and 2001 Wimbledon. As a qualifier at the clay-court Nordic Light Open in Helsinki, Finland in August, Kuznetsova won her first WTA singles title, defeating world No. 24 Patty Schnyder in the quarterfinals for her first win over a top 40 player, before defeating Denisa Chládková in the final. Kuznetsova entered the top 100 for the first time as a result of that victory. Kuznetsova qualified for the US Open, defeating 19th seed Anne Kremer in the first round for her first win over a top 20 player, before losing in the third round to 13th seed Silvia Farina Elia. In September, Kuznetsova won her second title at the hardcourt Bali Tennis Classic in Indonesia, defeating former major champions Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and Conchita Martínez. Also during 2002, she teamed up with Sánchez Vicario to win the first WTA Tour doubles titles of her career, in Sopot, Poland, Helsinki and Kyōtō, Japan. Kuznetsova finished the 2002 season as world No. 43 in singles.
Kuznetsova began her season at the Brisbane International. She received a wildcard, but fell in the first round in the singles to Elena Bovina. In the doubles competition, she paired with Martina Navratilova, with whom she would play throughout the year (except on the Indian Wells Open, partnering with Janette Husárová), and won against Nathalie Dechy and Émilie Loit in straight sets. In the Australian Open, she lost to second seed Venus Williams in the first round. With Navratilova, they lost against ninth seed Daniela Hantuchová and Chanda Rubin in the third round. She paired with Australian Jeff Coetzee but lost to Mark Knowles and Elena Likhovtseva in two tight sets in the first round. In the singles event of the Dubai Tennis Championships, Kuznetsova won the first round against sixth seeded Francesca Schiavone, but was beaten by Dinara Safina in the second round. In the doubles event she and Navratilova were beaten by eventual runners-up María Vento-Kabchi and Angelique Widjaja. She did not reach the quarterfinals of any tournament during the first half of the year. Her win over world No. 11, Anastasia Myskina, in the second round of the Indian Wells Open in California was her highest up to that date. In the first round of the French Open, Kuznetsova lost to Meghann Shaughnessy. She was also unsuccessful with Jared Palmer in the mixed doubles, losing to Nadia Petrova and Paul Haarhuis in the round of 16. Kuznetsova paired with Navratilova in the doubles match, but lost to Kim Clijsters and Ai Sugiyama in three sets in the quarterfinal. Kuznetsova participated at Wimbledon, where in the fourth round, she defeated wildcard Maria Sharapova to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, losing to third seed Justine Henin. At the doubles, they were again defeated by Clijsters and Sugiyama. Kuznetsova paired with Australian Todd Woodbridge in the mixed doubles, but lost against Leoš Friedl and Liezel Huber in the quarterfinal. She then made her first semifinal appearance of the year in San Diego, before losing to Henin. At the US Open singles tournament, Kuznetsova lost in the third round to top seed Kim Clijsters. However, in the doubles competition, she again partnered with Navratilova and reached the first Grand Slam final of her career but were beaten by Paola Suárez and Virginia Ruano Pascual in two straight sets. She entered the Sparkassen Cup in Leipzig, losing to fifth seeded Daniela Hantuchová in the first round. Kuznetsova and Navratilova won the doubles title against Elena Likhovtseva and Nadia Petrova. In the doubles competition at the Kremlin Cup, they reached the semifinals before losing to Russian couple and runners-up Anastasia Myskina and Vera Zvonareva. Her last appearance of the year was at the WTA Championships doubles competition in Los Angeles. In her first Tour Championships participation she and Navratilova lost in the first round to eventual champions Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suárez. She finished the 2003 season as world No. 36.
Kuznetsova reached the third round of the singles competition at the Australian Open, before losing to top seed Justine Henin. She reached her second major doubles final with new partner Elena Likhovtseva before losing to Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suárez. Several weeks later, playing singles at Dubai, Kuznetsova defeated former world No. 1, Venus Williams, in the quarterfinals before defeating world No. 8, Ai Sugiyama, in the semifinals for her first win over a top-10 player. Kuznetsova lost the final to world No. 1 Henin. The following week, Kuznetsova defeated Henin for the first time in the semifinals of Doha, before losing in the final to compatriot Myskina in three sets, pushing her into the top 20 for the first time. In April, Kuznetsova reached her third singles final of the year at the start of the clay-court season at the J&S Cup in Warsaw, losing to Venus Williams in the final. Kuznetsova climbed to No. 11 by the time of the French Open. There, she reached the fourth round before losing to eventual champion Myskina, after holding a match point in the third set. In doubles Kuznetsova and Likhovtseva reached the final, losing to Suarez and Ruano Pascual. Following the French Open, Kuznetsova climbed to career-highs of world No. 9 in the singles rankings, her first time in the top ten, and on 7 June 2004, world No. 3 in the doubles rankings. Kuznetsova won her third title at the Eastbourne International, defeating Hantuchová in the final in three sets. At Wimbledon, Kuznetsova suffered a first-round loss to 118th–ranked Virginie Razzano. She fell to No. 4 in the doubles on 26 July, losing in the LA Women's Tennis Championships to 113th ranked Gisela Dulko and Patricia Tarabini. Representing Russia at the Olympics, Kuznetsova reached the quarterfinals before losing to silver-medallist Amélie Mauresmo. She went into the US Open seeded ninth. There, she defeated 14th seed Petrova in the quarterfinals, and in her first Grand Slam tournament semifinal, defeated fifth seed and former champion Davenport, ending the American's 22-match winning streak. In the final, Kuznetsova defeated sixth seed Dementieva. Kuznetsova was the first female Russian to win the US Open and the third to win a Grand Slam singles title, following the successes of Myskina and Maria Sharapova earlier in the year. Meanwhile, Kuznetsova teamed with Likhovtseva to reach the final of the doubles tournament before losing there to Suarez and Ruano Pascual, marking Kuznetsova's fourth consecutive defeat by the pair in Grand Slams. Kuznetsova, however, climbed again to No. 3 on 13 September, after her loss in Los Angeles in early July. Kuznetsova continued her success by winning the Wismilak International in Bali, Indonesia defeating Marlene Weingärtner in the final. In the doubles she reached with Arantxa-Sánchez Vicario the final, losing to Anastasia Myskina and Ai Sugiyama. This improved her singles ranking to a new high of world No. 5, but worsen her doubles ranking to No. 4 on 20 September. The following week, at the China Open in Beijing, Kuznetsova defeated Wimbledon champion Sharapova in the semifinals to extend her winning streak to 14 matches. However, she lost in the final to Serena Williams. Making her debut at the season-ending WTA Championships in Los Angeles, Kuznetsova lost two of three matches in the preliminary round-robin stage and exited before the semifinals. Kuznetsova finished the season as world No. 5.
