Svetlana Kuznetsova

In the quarterfinal, she lost to 574th ranked Elena Voropaeva in four sets, after losing two tie breaks in the two earlier sets.

Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova (born 27 June 1985) is a Russian former professional tennis player.

Kuznetsova's mother, Galina Tsareva, is a six-time world champion and holder of 20 world records in cycling, and her brother, Nikolay Kuznetsov, was a silver medalist at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and coach of the Russian cycling team Lokomotiv.

Kuznetsova never showed interest in cycling, but rather tennis.

She liked watching tennis from an early age, preferring men's over women's tennis.

"I had posters in my room of MaliVai Washington, Marcelo Ríos, and (Yevgeny) Kafelnikov. It's very weird but this is who I liked. Later I was a big fan of (Marat) Safin.", she said.

Kuznetsova began to play tennis at the age of seven, and moved to Spain six years later to receive better training and coaching.

While there, she became fluent in Spanish.

Kuznetsova debuted in her first International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament in Mallorca on 31 January.

In the first round, she defeated Katia Altilia from Italy in straight sets, 6–0, 6–4.

However, she lost in the quarterfinal to Oana Elena Golimbioschi.

Her next appearance was in Talence in April.

She defeated Aurore Desertin in the first round, but lost in the second round to Berengere Karpenschif, both from France.

In Minsk, Belarus, in a tournament using the short sets scoring system, she reached the quarterfinal, after defeating the unranked Vera Zvonareva in the first round in four sets, and Daria Panova in three sets in the second round.

However, Kuznetsova was ranked in the top 900, receiving her first ranking of 889 during the week ending 20 November 2000.

She moved to Mallorca again and lost in the first round to Dinara Safina after winning the first set.

Her last tournament of the year was again in Mallorca, but now played in a minimum of four sets.

In the round of 32, she defeated Silvia Disderi.

However, she fell to eighth seeded Mihaela Moldovan in the last round.

She ended the season ranked 889.

Kuznetsova began playing in tournaments on the ITF circuit in 2000, winning her first title on the circuit in April 2001.

Her first appearances in the main draws of tournaments on the main WTA Tour were at the Madrid Open in May of that year and at the Waikoloa Championships in September, losing in the second round on both occasions.

In 2001, she first took part in a WTA Tour tournament, the Madrid Open, and a year later won her first WTA Tour title at the Nordea Nordic Light Open in Helsinki, Finland.

Her first appearance at a major was at the 2002 Australian Open, and her first major title came at the 2004 US Open over countrywoman Elena Dementieva, making her the third Russian woman to win a major title (after Anastasia Myskina and Maria Sharapova earlier that year).

Kuznetsova also played various mixed doubles events, most prominently in 2003, but never went beyond the quarterfinals.

She won a total of 18 WTA singles and 16 doubles titles.

Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova was born in Leningrad.

Her father, Aleksandr Kuznetsov, coached five Olympic and world cycling champions.

She is a two-time major singles champion, winning the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open, and finishing runner-up at two other majors.

In doubles, Kuznetsova reached the finals of each major at least once, winning the Australian Open twice.

Kuznetsova moved to Spain at the age of seven to attend the Sanchez-Casal Academy.

Pairing with Likhovtseva, she climbed to No. 3 in doubles in 2004, holding that position for eight weeks, her career-high.

She won the Australian Open twice in doubles, in 2005 alongside Molik and in 2012 partnering Vera Zvonareva.

At the 2006 French Open and the 2007 US Open singles tournaments she was the runner-up, both times to Justine Henin.

As a result, Kuznetsova obtained a career-high WTA ranking of world No. 2, holding that position for 24 weeks in 2007 and 2008.

Kuznetsova's second major singles title was the 2009 French Open, defeating compatriot Dinara Safina in the final.

After the 2010 season, Kuznetsova lost her top 10 position and dropped down to a year-end ranking of 72 in 2012, until recovering gradually through 2016, when she reentered the top ten and reached the semifinals of the WTA Finals, her best result in that tournament.

Apart from singles tournaments, Kuznetsova was also successful in doubles.

She won her first five WTA doubles titles with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario.

After a series of disappointing results with her she paired with Martina Navratilova, Elena Likhovtseva, Alicia Molik, and Amélie Mauresmo.