For the Russian tennis player Svetlana Kuznetsova this year turned out to be incredibly difficult. The former second racket of the world and the winner of two Grand Slam tournaments missed several months due to injuries to the wrist and knee, and won five victories in seven ground defeats for the ground-grass part of the season. The 34-year-old athlete practically did not earn rating points and flew out from Roland Garros and Wimbledon after the first lap.

In the summer, before a series of American tournaments on hard, Kuznetsova hoped to restart the bad season. This time of year has traditionally been pretty good for her - a year ago, a Russian woman won a tournament in Washington, points for which allowed her to stay close to the first hundred of the WTA rating. To better prepare, the athlete reunited with her former mentor Carlos Martinez, who is now training Daria Kasatkina.

However, all plans for the future almost fell through at the end of July, when Kuznetsova was refused a US visa. For the athlete, this news was a shock. The season for the 34-year-old athlete could be considered lost. Without the opportunity to perform in America, she lost both rating points and prize. Just skipping the tournament in Washington led to the fact that Kuznetsova fell to 198th line. She hasn’t lowered so low for 17 years since she took only the first steps in her professional career. In this situation, one does not have to think about big victories, but about declaring to qualify for at least some tournament.

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Publication by Svetlana Kuznetsova / Kuznetsova (@ svetlanak27) Jul 24, 2019 at 11:49 PDT

Kuznetsova’s crisis coincided with the failures of the entire Russian diaspora in women's tennis. In the top 40 there is not one of her representatives, even Kasatkina and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Promising Russians are not in a hurry to replace them, limiting themselves only to local successes. And all this happens against the backdrop of the unprecedented successes of Karen Khachanov, Daniil Medvedev, and in recent days - Andrei Rublev.

Fortunately, I still managed to solve the visa problems, but it was too late when registration for major competitions was coming to an end. Only at the last moment Kuznetsova received a wild card for the Premier 5 tournament in Toronto. For her, it became a saving straw, which she had to grab onto.

Kuznetsova took her chance, and not bad for a tennis player, who spent the last month not on the game, but on the fight against the consequences of trauma and migration bureaucracy. She beat the Chinese woman Siyu Wang and then dealt in two sets with Donna Vekich. Next, the current champion of the tournament and the fourth racket of the world, Simone Halep, were waiting for the Russian woman. Although on the eve of the Romanian, she played with Jennifer Brady for two and a half hours, she gave only three games to the next rival.

Exit to the third round Kuznetsova was enough to taxi out of the pike. She scored enough points to rise to the 153rd line. At the same time, the athlete immediately received two real gifts of fate - she was given a wild card for another tournament in Cincinnati, when Venus Williams refused a similar invitation, and the organizers of US Open suggested the Russian woman replace Dominika Tsibulkova in the main draw of the final Grand Slam tournament this season.

At least some certainty with a further schedule literally untied Kuznetsova’s hand, and in Toronto she really revealed herself - after all, she had been waiting for such a chance. At the start of the tournament in Cincinnati, a Russian woman defeated Anastasia Sevastova and Dayana Yastremskaya, but spent too much effort on them. Both fights lasted for three sets, and half of the games were played in tie-breaks. In a meeting with Ukrainian Kuznetsova, I even had to play matchballs, but she still got into the third round.

#CincyTennis@CincyTennispic.twitter.com/n8evrCdqiS

- Svetlana Kuznetsova (@ SvetlanaK27) August 13, 2019

With the next rival, the Russian woman was lucky again. Although Sloan Stevens is among the elite of world tennis, occupying the tenth place in the WTA ranking, recently the American is out of shape. In previous tournaments, she suffered three defeats in a row. Kuznetsova did not allow Stevens to hope for success and defeated her with a score of 6: 1, 6: 2.

But on this, the Russian tennis player did not think to stop. In the quarterfinals, she faced the third racket of the world Karolina Plishkova. Kuznetsova lost the first set with a score of 3: 6 and lost in the second, when the opponent filed for the match. A native of St. Petersburg made her first break on time and evened the score, switching the game to a tie-break, in which Plishkova earned only two points.

After that, Kuznetsova already dictated her conditions and took someone else's pitch, taking the score 2: 1. The Czech tennis player could not recoup against the opponent who caught courage. The Russian woman issued another difficult victory, spending 2 hours and 23 minutes on it.

“I can’t believe it! But I promised myself that I would have a different attitude. This is my approach. If during the game you give all your best, then victory or defeat does not matter. I go out on the court and just enjoy it, because in tennis this is the most important thing. Each new victory was a little easier for me than the previous one, I just kept playing. It’s probably good that I had a short break, I managed to miss tennis. I think I have become a more mature athlete and now I try not to look beyond one rally, ”said the tennis player after the match.

All ❤️.

Our 2004 champ Svetlana Kuznetsova takes down No. 3 Karolína Plíšková to reach the SFs at @CincyTennis! #USOpenSeries | #CincyTennis | @ SvetlanaK27pic.twitter.com / v33QfC2Wl1

- US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 16, 2019

Kuznetsova for the first time in two and a half years reached the semi-finals of the Premier series tournament. In the “live” WTA ranking, which is updated after each match, it soared to 82nd place, overtaking Vera Zvonareva and Maria Sharapova. Next week, Kuznetsova will definitely be in the first hundred of the usual rating, which she did not manage to achieve even before the ill-fated story with a visa.

And with the most successful handouts, an athlete may end up in the 50th line - such a layout is guaranteed to her if she wins the tournament in Cincinnati. But first, she will have to fight with the second racket of the world Ashley Barty. The girls have never met each other, since the peak of the Australian just happened during the recession at Kuznetsova. Barty reached the semifinals thanks to the victory over the Greek Maria Sakkari, who first lost in the first set, but then gave only two games.

No matter how the season develops further with Kuznetsova, she can certainly qualify for the “Return of the Year” award, which is presented by the WTA according to the results of all competitions. To recover from injuries, change a coach, deal with a visa, and then two weeks later make a jump to a hundred places in the ranking - such a development of events the Russian woman could hardly have predicted a month ago.