The 2009 French Open championship match was much shorter and less thrilling than we had expected, with Svetlana Kuznetsova quickly defeating favorite Dinara Safina 6-4 6-2 in an-all Russian final. To make things worse, the world No.1 Safina double-faulted on the championship point.

The top-seeded Safina opened the match which began with an exchange of breaks. In the eighth and ninth game there was another exchange of breaks, and both players had a 40-0 lead on their opponent’s serve. Despite being quickly broken back in the ninth game, Kuznetsova broke Safina yet again in the tenth game, and took the first set.

In the second set, the seventh-seeded Kuznetsova earned breaks in the sixth and eighth games, to prevent the 23-year-old Safina from claiming her maiden Grand Slam title.

Safina has failed to crown her spectacular clay-court season, including her impressive run to the French Open finals, by losing her third Grand Slam final and second successive at Roland Garros. The 23-year-old Kuznetsova won her second Grand Slam title in her fourth major final.

Moreover, we are still having a shaky and slamless player on top of the rankings. Safina had an excellent chance, as well as ability, to make herself stand out from the rest, but she wasted the opportunity and hence failed to restore balance in women’s tennis.

The 74-minute match is the eighth consecutive straight sets women's final at Roland Garros. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

This is probably the first time I was successful at predicting finalists, Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova have been by far my strongest favorites for Roland Garros title. The top-seeded Safina and seventh-seeded Kuznetsova defeated their semifinal opponents, Dominika Cibulkova and Samantha Stosur respectively, to make an all-Russian 2009 French Open final.

World number one Dinara Safina reached her second successive Roland Garros final by capitalizing on a series of costly errors from Slovakia’s world number 19 Dominika Cibulkova to win a scrappy match 6-3 6-3.

"I'm trying to control my emotions. I'm not playing my best, but still it's not easy to beat me," said Safina.

The 2006 French Open runner-up Kuznetsova served for the match in the second set and then squandered a 5-2 lead in the tiebreak, but recovered her nerve in the decider to defeat surprise semifinalist Samantha Stosur of Australia. Stosur will be a member of the Top 20 when the rankings are released on Monday.

Match-up: The 2006 US Open champion Kuznetsova will be competing in her fourth Grand Slam final, and Safina in her third. Safina leads their head-to-head record 8-5, and she won their last match, in the Rome final. However, Kuznetsova is the only player to have beaten Safina on clay this season. This should be the most thrilling French Open final we could get right now. (source: BBC, photos: Tennis Channel, Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Second seed Serena Williams ended her 18-match Grand Slam winning streak by falling to seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals of the 2009 French Open.

Russia's Kuznetsova faced a set point serving at 5-6 in the first set, but she fought it off and eventually won the set. Despite being three points from defeat in the second set, Williams evened the match, and then took a 3-1 lead in the decider. Kuznetsova mounted the final comeback and broke serve in the last game to finally beat Williams 7-6(3) 5-7 7-5.

Williams was looking for her third successive Grand Slam title and the 11th of her career.

The 2004 US Open champion Kuznetsova, who has been my second favorite for the title, just after top seed Dinara Safina, will play Samantha Stosur in the semifinals. The 25-year-old Stosur has never won a Tour title, and will be playing in her first major semifinal. In the quarterfinals the Australian beat young Romanian phenomenon Sorana Cirstea 6-1 6-3.

The other semifinal will include Russian Dinara Safina and Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova. (source: AP, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

The draw for the 2009 French Open is out and here’s my analysis of contenders. I would just like to mention that despite all the facts, I'm sure we all deep inside feel that the women’s field is wide open.

Dinara Safina is my top favorite to win the title. She is coming to Paris with back-to-back titles in Rome and Madrid, plus the Stuttgart final before that (and all the three tournaments mentioned are played on clay). And not only that, the world No.1 Safina was last year’s runner up at the French Open.

The Russian is in impressive form, but she shouldn’t give herself the luxury of making matches longer than they should be (although she’s great at coming back from behind), in order to be fully fit as long as it takes to claim her first Grand Slam.

The first opponent at the French Open won’t be easy for Safina, as she’s meeting Anne Keothavong who reached the semifinals of this week’s Warsaw Open. Other big names such as Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Alisa Kleybanova, Zheng Jie, Victoria Azarenka, Carla Suarez Navarro and defending champion Ana Ivanovic are also in her quarter.

Serena Williams still hasn’t won a singles match on clay this season. The world No.2 dropped openers of Marbella, Rome and Madrid, and hence it’s hard to put her as the favorite. However, knowing her impressive resume which includes the 2002 French Open title, and her ability to show her best at majors, the younger Williams sister can never be written off.

To make things more interesting, Serena Williams is playing Klara Zakopalova in the first round, the player she lost to in Marbella in April. Serena is looking at another potential tough match in the fourth round against Flavia Pennetta.

Venus Williams has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, and although she has never been victorious at Roland Garros, she played the final in 2002, and just like her sister Serena, she’s a threat anywhere and anytime.

Williams is the top seed in her quarter of the draw. Her first-round opponent will be fellow American Bethanie Mattek-Sands. In the second round Williams could meet Sabine Lisicki, who beat her en route to the title in Charleston last month. Read more »

Svetlana Kuznetsova’s recent excellent results have come to a halt with a 6-3 6-2 defeat to Alona Bondarenko in the second round of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open.

This is Bondarenko’s third victory over Kuznetsova, while Kuznetsova has won only one of their career meetings. The two have clashed on claycourts three times, and each time the Ukrainian was victorious.

Kuznetsova, seeded sixth in Madrid, won Stuttgart two weeks ago, and was runner-up last week in Rome.

The 46th-ranked Bondarenko will next play Anna Chakvetadze.

Additional info: The world No.7 Kuznetsova has a new coach, former top-ranked doubles player and current Fed Cup coach Larisa Savchenko, who will help her during the claycourt season. Savchenko seems to have a good idea when to let Kuznetsova go her own way.

"She's very easy-going and relaxed and we have great communication," said the 23-year-old Kuznetsova.

"She tells me little things and it helps me find my way out. For me, external opinions help, but it doesn't have to be pushy and bring me down." (photo by our reader Elisa)