Kuznetsova races into Australian Open third round
By DPA, IANSWednesday, January 20, 2010
MELBOURNE - Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova shrugged off a morning start as the big-match spirit helped her to a 6-2, 6-2 defeat of compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach the third round of the Australian Open Wednesday.
“I get extra motivation when I play Slams,” said the defending French Open winner and US Open champion from 2004. “It doesn’t matter how bad you play, when you come to Grand Slams, it’s like, you just get there, and it’s special.
“This is what I work for, you just enjoy it so much.
“To play here even today the first at 11.00, there are still many people. You just have fun - this is for real.”
Kuznetsova was joined by a surprise companion in the third round in 83rd-ranked Briton Elena Baltacha, whose win over Kateryna Bondarenko of the Ukraine 6-2, 7-5 duplicated her career-best showing at a major (third round Melbourne, 2005) and a similar showing at Wimbledon eight years ago.
First-round play concluded at fast rate, with four seeds sweeping ahead in quick straight sets.
Danish number four Caroline Wozniacki beat Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak for the fifth time in their past six meetings through a 6-4, 6-2 decision. Number seven Victoria Azarenka stopped Stephanie Cohen-Aloro with the loss of just two games.
It was the same dominating scoreline for Russian ninth seed Vera Zvonareva, a winner over Slovak Kristina Kucova 6-2, 6-0.
China’s Li Na bet New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic with a similar scoreline.
