By Randy Walker
Svetlana Kuznetsova opened up the defense of her women’s singles title at the 2010 French Open, shaking off a slow start to beat Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3, 6-1.
Kuznetsova trailed 0-3 in the first set, but reeled off nine straight games en route to the victory. The momentum of the match seemed to turn when Cirstea was unable to convert at 3-1, 40-0.
“It was extremely rocky start,” said Martina Navratilova on Tennis Channel of Kuznetsova. “She was able to turn it around and she never looked back. After the first three games, she played the kind of tennis that we are used to seeing her play.”
Cirstea was about as tough a first-round opponent for Kuznetsova, being ranked No. 34 – just missing out on being one of the 32 seeded players in the event – and being a quarterfinalist at Roland Garros the year before.
In 2009, Kuznetsova won her second career major singles title at Roland Garros, defeating Dinara Safina 6-4, 6-2 in the final. He first major singles title came at the 2004 U.S. Open, where she beat fellow Russian Elena Dementieva 6-3, 7-5. The year after her US Open triumph, Kuznetsova was unable to deal with the pressure of being the defending champion and was defeated in the first round the following year, losing to No. 97-ranked Ekaterina Bychkova 6-3, 6-2 to become the only defending US Open women’s champion to lose in the first round.
Kuznetsova’s win over Cirstea prevented her from becoming the second defending women’s singles champion to lose in the opening round the following year. The only defending Roland Garros women’s singles champion to not survive the opening round the following year was Anastasia Myskina of Russia, who was defeated in the first round of the 2005 French Open, losing to Maria Sanchez Lorenzo of Spain 6-4, 4-6, 6-0. That match was played exactly five years to the day of Kuznetsova’s win over Cirstea.
If Kuznetsova, seeded No. 6, doesn’t reach the semifinals this year at Roland Garros, she will drop out of the top 10 of the WTA Tour rankings.