Player of the week: Svetlana Kuznetsova

With all the big favourites failing to overcome the early rounds in the last few tournaments, Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova was the only Top-10 to show a good performance as she captured the title in the big Premier event in Beijing.


Although she didn't have to face any Top-10 player, her way to the title wasn't as easy as it may be suppossed. In the first round Kuznetsova survived a very difficult match against local hero Jie Zheng that was decided in two very tight sets. After sweeping Anabel Medina in the 2nd round, Kuznetsova overcame the loss of the 2nd set to bagel Alona Bondarenko in the 3rd. This was the point when Kuznetsova found her best tennis, and in the decissive rounds she consecutively defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Nadia Petrova and Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets and dropping no more than 6 games on each match.


After winning Roland Garros in June, it seemed that Kuznetsova had lost her focus a little bit, but now she's back at her best and ready for the last challenge of the season, the WTA Sony Ericsson Championships.