Dubai: After three finals appearances over 13 years, Tour veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova has set her sights on finally winning the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, beginning from February 19.
The 31-year-old Russian has fallen just short on three occasions, finishing as runner-up to Justine Henin in 2004, Elena Dementieva in 2008 and Caroline Wozniacki in 2011.
But the Tour veteran is now playing her best tennis in years, and after Wimbledon last year — where she reached the fourth round before losing to eventual champion Serena Williams — her efforts were rewarded with a return to the top 10 for the first time since 2010.
She continued to go from strength-to-strength during the second half of last season, retaining her Moscow title, reaching the semi-finals of Wuhan and Tianjin and the quarter-finals of Montreal and Cincinnati, before finishing the year with a run to the semi-finals of the WTA Finals in Singapore. Her run to the fourth round at the Australian Open this year before falling to Anastasia Pavyluchenkova saw her climb in the rankings to World No.8.
And with her ranking restored and dozens of wins under her belt, Kuznetsova has gained in confidence and feels she’s earned new respect from her rivals.
“People see me differently now because I’m a top 10 player again,” she said. “Players will only see you by the ranking, and ranking reflects everything. You can’t cheat the ranking, that’s for sure.
“All players want to beat me. Of course, everyone expects good tennis from me and that can be hard to deal with. But I feel confident, I feel happy and healthy. Those are the main things and I love the game. I enjoy it.”
Her biggest challenge has often been in finding consistency, and that is reflected in her results in Dubai. As well as her three finals she has reached the semi-finals twice, but she has also twice lost to Julia Goerges in the first round, twice lost to a qualifier and been beaten by wild card Sania Mirza. In 2013 she even had to fight her way through qualifying.
“I would love to take some of the consistency into this season. In the last few years, I haven’t been so good,” she admits. “I was always there, but couldn’t quite flip the switch. I would love to stay with the switch on, because it’s the key for me. I feel that I’m playing as well as the best in the world, and I have a chance to beat them and be ranked among them everywhere I go. It’s a great feeling because I worked really hard to be there.”
Kuznetsova will be playing in Dubai for the 14th time, missing just one year since her debut in 2003.
She is just one of seven Top 10 players who will be chasing the title. Headlining will be World No. 2 and 2016 Australian and US Open champion Angelique Kerber, last year’s French Open winner Garbine Muguruza, WTA Finals winner Dominika Cibulkova, 2017 Brisbane champion Karolina Pliskova, 2017 Sydney winner Johanna Konta and former Dubai champions Caroline Wozniacki, Sara Errani and Agnieszka Radwanska.
Action gets underway first with the WTA event from 19 February, followed by the ATP World Tour event from February 27.
The ATP line-up includes World No. 1 Andy Murray; Australian Open champion and seven-time Dubai winner Roger Federer; Dubai defending champion, winner of three Grand Slams and world number three Stan Wawrinka; two-time Dubai finalist Tomas Berdych and World No. 9 Gael Monfils.
Tickets are available from the box office at Dubai Tennis Stadium in Garhoud, which is open 9am to 9pm daily. Tickets are also available via http://www.dubaidutyfreetennischampionships.com/en/tickets.
For more details visit www.dubaidutyfreetennischampionships.com.
