Kuznetsova makes steps in right direction

CARLSBAD, Calif.

It could have been the end of Svetlana Kuznetsova's summer right then and there.

The two-time Grand champion had put in the hard work in the Russian resort city of Sochi after a miserable Wimbledon and began to rediscover her intelligent, relentless game during the first six days of the Mercury Insurance Open at Carlsbad.

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But just as she was on the verge of putting the spirited Agnieszka Radwanska away in the final, she began to choke. She tried to serve the match out at 5-4 in the second set and was broken when she missed a simple backhand.

No sweat, as the Russian managed to pound her way into the tiebreaker and flew to a 4-0 lead. But then the complicated, enigmatic former ruler of the U.S. Open and Roland Garros began to get tight, and the dark clouds in her mind began to obscure the brilliant sun.

She crushed a swing volley winner and held her first match point at 6-3. And she double faulted. Then she buried a backhand deep into the net. Finally, she took a swing at backhand down the line and missed it by a good three feet. It was 6-6 and she couldn't calm herself.

“I'm thinking I'm 25, I started to play tennis at 7, and I'm playing for 18 years, and I can't make myself to put this small ball in this big court? It really makes me think, what am I doing here?" she said.

But voilà, Radwanska then doubled faulted herself to give the Russian another match point. And what did the woman who once stared down the great Serena Williams do? She double faulted, again.

Radwanska then took care of the net with a brilliant forehand pass and reflex backhand that Kuznetsova couldn't handle. It was time for the Russian to take a bathroom break and lay assault to the locker room.

Return game

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"My knees were shaking and I couldn't push on my serve and now I know why people double fault on match points,” Kuznetsova said. “It was very hard to close and I choked for the first time in my life. The trophy was very important to me. I was very embarrassed.”

All Kuznetsova's talk of being a more composed person and heady player who knew her place in the tennis universe had began to dissipate. It seemed like the same old Sveta who hadn't won a title in 10 months — totally fragile and mistrustful of her shot selection and her own potential greatness.

But then she composed herself. She believed she was the better player on the court — which she was for much of the day — even though Radwanska had shown more aggression to her soft hands and leopard quick movement.

After going down a break, Kuznetsova decided that she'd hammer away. Her serve, returns and groundstrokes roared back to life. She mixed into some medium-paced balls in order to force the counterpuncher to generate some of her own pace. She came back from an early break in the third set and simply swarmed her foe, finally winning the contest 6-4 6-7 (7) 6-3 with a bullet of a backhand down the line.

“To play that bad at end of the second set and then to let her come back and see me choke, I had to be twice as strong in the third set and I was,” Kuznetsova said. “It's pretty funny now that I won the match, but if I lost, I might be thinking, 'Should I finish playing tennis?' I doubt it will happen again."

Maybe it won't, and Kuznetsova could recall another time when she had a match totally in her hands and let it go. But she did hold a match point against Anastasia Myskina at the 2004 French Open and eventually went down, although Myskina, who eventually won the championship, was not to be denied that day.

Three months after that loss, Kuznetsova raised her first major trophy at the U.S. Open, so maybe her hiccup against Radwanska was a positive sign. She certainly has the game to win a Slam, even though her results since winning last year's French Open have been spotty at best.

It wasn't until this past week in Carlsbad that she won her first title of the year, and she's rarely gone deep in any event. She found the solution to her recent woes, which is to play with the game that made her a fierce top-five player. That's what she believed took her out of her comfort zone for much of this year, and now that she's committed to playing with spin and smarts again, she thinks she can contend with anyone.

Just look at the set of foes she took down in San Diego: a top-20 up-and-comer in Yanina Wickmayer (who tears the cover off the ball), a top-spinning grinder in the form of Sara Errani, a nuclear-hitting teenager in American Coco Vandeweghe, a fleet all-courter in Flavia Pennetta, and an intelligent, fast and well-rounded player in Radwanska.

Kuznetsova called her performance in the second-set tiebreaker a test from God. But the sternest exam she received, for all her claims of improvement, was in besting a talented field over a long week when there was no indication coming into the event that she was ready to soar again, other than the hopeful statements coming out of her mouth.

“I had all types of player and I beat them, so it means that I'm on a certain level,” she said

Kuznetsova, who began the week at her lowest, ranking in six years at No. 21, will rise to 14 when rankings are released Monday. Winning just one event doesn't guarantee that she is going to win the U.S. Open. She has to turn around and play longtime rival Maria Sharapova in the first round of Cincinnati on Tuesday, so her mind isn't on New York yet.

But when she gets on the plane and heads into America's heartland, at least she'll know that in Carlsbad, she survived and prospered. That should make her a prime-time contender the rest of the summer.

“It didn't kill me today and I didn't kill myself, so it just made me stronger,” Kuznetsova said. “I found my game, but I still have a long way to go to where I want to be.”