Svetlana Kuznetsova just keeps getting better with age.
The oldest player at the WTA Finals at 31 years of age, the Russian, who didn’t qualify for the event until Saturday and had to fly 5,000 miles from Moscow to reach Singapore, once again came back from the brink against a younger rival.
Having saved a match point in a dramatic victory over defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska in her opening match, Kuznetsova dismantled the booming serves of US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 in the white group on Tuesday in Singapore.
“From my heart,” the ninth-ranked Kuznetsova said in a court-side interview, when asked to explain her resurgence this season.
“I have not been at my best these past years, but something has changed this year and I just enjoy my game, I enjoy the crowd and I enjoy playing the best players in the world,” said Kuznetsova, a 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open winner who is now back in the top 10 for the first time in six years.
‘Here to fight’
She will qualify for the semifinals if Radwanska beats French Open champion Garbine Muguruza later in the day.
A physically exhausted Kuznetsova, a former world No. 2, sent social media into overdrive two days ago when she cut off part of her ponytail as she trailed Radwanska in the final set.
Kuznetsova ended up beating the Pole from a match point down, just 48 hours after qualifying for Singapore at the last-minute following her Kremlin Cup win.
“I put aside that I’m tired, put aside the emotions, the jet lag — I didn’t want to think about it,” Kuznetsova said after that match. “We came here to fight, let’s put everything else to one side.”
Serve dismantled
In her second group match, Kuznetsova dismantled the serve of the 24-year-old Pliskova.
The tall Czech, the WTA ace leader this year with more than 500 aces, had fired off 14 aces in her previous match but only managed three against Kuznetsova.
After splitting the first two sets, the crowd at Singapore Indoor Stadium was in for a wild ride in the decider as both women failed to pull the trigger.
Kuznetsova played a passive service game as she led 5-3, while Pliskova failed to serve out the match at 6-5. Kuznetsova then missed three match points at 6-3 in the tie-break before going on to win on her fourth with her 24th winner of the match.