Entering a new cycle
NEW YORK – By all rights, Svetlana Kuznetsova should have been a cycling star: Her brother and parents all won or coached others to Olympic medals and world titles in that sport. Kuznetsova gave it a shot, hated it and moved on to tennis.
What a brilliant career move. Still just 19, with braces on her teeth, she’s the U.S. Open champion, the third consecutive Russian woman to win a major.
Pounding ferocious forehands and covering the baseline with the muscular legs of a Tour de France rider, Kuznetsova overwhelmed Elena Dementieva 6-3, 7-5 Saturday night in the American Grand Slam’s first all-Russian final.
As of four months ago, no Russian woman had won a major, but Anastasia Myskina beat Dementieva in the French Open final, and Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon. Russians occupy half of the top 10 spots in the rankings.
“Russia is just a powerful country,” said Kuznetsova, the youngest Open champion since Serena Williams was 17 in 1999.
Until now, Kuznetsova probably was the least-known of her country’s rising stars, instead she was most famous for being Martina Navratilova’s former doubles partner. They won five titles as a pair and were the runners-up at the 2003 Open.
How anonymous is Kuznetsova? After a practice session 1 1/2 hours before the match, she walked across the National Tennis Center grounds without getting asked for autographs or photos. She might as well have been another fan in a gray sweat shirt, milling around, waiting for the U.S. Open final to start.
The men’s final today has two more recognizable players: top-ranked Roger Federer against 2001 Open champion Lleyton Hewitt. Federer, bidding to become the first man since 1988 to win three majors in a year, beat No. 5 Tim Henman 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, while No. 4 Hewitt eliminated No. 28 Joachim Johansson 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 in the afternoon semifinals.
The evening began on a somber note, with 20,524 spectators joining in a moment of silence to remember victims of Sept. 11, 2001, and the recent terrorist attack at a school in Russia.
The American flag atop the stadium was at half-staff, and a 50-foot flag was unfurled on court before the match. Dementieva asked the crowd to observe another moment of silence after the match.
“It’s a great day for me as a tennis player,” Dementieva said. “It’s a day to remember. You lost hundreds of people on Sept. 11, 2001 – Sept. 1, 2004, we lost hundreds of children.”
When play began, Kuznetsova was brilliant, striking winner after winner on the forehand side. She finished with 23 from that wing alone. Dementieva normally has just as good a forehand but was reduced to chasing shots on defense and wound up with a total of seven winners – 27 fewer than Kuznetsova.
It’s the first season that three women from one country won Grand Slam titles since 1979, when Americans Barbara Jordan (Australian Open), Chris Evert (French Open) and Tracy Austin (U.S. Open) did it.
Eight straight majors hosted all-Williams or all-Belgian finals. Two of the past three have been all-Russian encounters.