FRENCH OPEN TENNIS WOMEN'S FINAL PREVIEW: SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA hopes form from the distant past and the present will be turned on its head when she faces Dinara Safina in the French Open final at Roland Garros today.
Familiar hitting partners since the age of 12, the Russian duo will trade blows on the Philippe Chatrier court, with both players seeking their first touch of the Suzanne Lenglen Cup.
Safina, Marat Safin’s equally enigmatic sister, is the form player. She has lost just once on clay all season – to Kuznetsova – but last month’s defeat in Stuttgart aside, Safina has had the upper hand in most of their recent encounters, a form guide which dates back to their early teens.
“She was a funny girl,” the 23-year-old Safina reminisced at a news conference. “I remember her coming to the match with a two-litre (bottle of) Pepsi. You would look at her, and it was like, no way she can be one day winning grand slam.”
But while world number one Safina awaits her first slam triumph, seventh seed Kuznetsova has already savoured success on one of the the biggest stages of all with her 2004 US Open victory.
She reached the New York final again two years ago and came close to breaking her Paris duck in 2006 when going down in straight sets in the final to Belgium’s Justine Henin.
Safina has beaten her five times in their last six meetings, a trend which started when they first faced each other across the net.
“I was like 12 or 13, and Dinara was an unbelievable girl. She’s one year younger than me,” Kuznetsova, 24 later this month, said.
“I had no chance against her. I remember losing to her 6-1, 6-0 or something, I had no chance. I used to be the girl from St Petersburg, she was from Moscow and her mom was a huge coach.
“She was very good then, and then her brother was huge. I was coming to Marat, ‘Hey, I know your sister Dinara. Can you give me an autograph?’ ”
However, emotions will not get in the way of the numbers when both players hit the first balls today. Kuznetsova was pushed to three-set thrillers in her quarter and semi-final matches on each occasion after winning the opening set. She was a set and break up against Serena Williams in the last eight and two points from the match against Australian Samantha Stosur in the semi-finals when she let her opponent level the contest.
“I have less pressure. She’s number one. She has to win it, not me. I just want to go out there and enjoy it,” Kuznetsova said.
Safina, who will be playing her third grand slam final after losing in Paris last year and at the Australian Open earlier this year, admitted she was extremely nervous in her semi-final match against Slovak Dominika Cibulkova.
