At the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova came out as a winner of a seesaw semifinal against fourth seed Jelena Jankovic. Final score 5-7 6-4 6-3.

Amazingly, there were a total of 43 break points during the match. Jankovic converted 14 out of 21, and Kuznetsova 16 out of 22. The match was long and undecided, but it seemed to me that world No.4 Jankovic let the victory slip through her fingers as she was more confident and emotionally stable and seemed more likely to win throughout the match. Actually, even though I believe a few of Jankovic’s wasted chances gave Kuznetsova the victory, towards the end of the match, Jankovic's tiredness and Kuznetsova's physical fitness and energy also had their share in deciding the winner. Read more »

Svetlana Kuznetsova and Jelena Jankovic are the first known semifinalists of this year’s Barleys Dubai Tennis Championships and they will play each other on Friday. In the quarterfinals, Kuznetsova defeated Amelie Mauresmo, while Jankovic advanced with Anna Chakvetadze retiring before even starting the second set.

Second-seeded Kuznetsova beat Mauresmo 6-1 7-6(4). Former world No.1 Mauresmo won the Dubai title in 2002 and finished runner-up last season. This defeat means that the Frenchwoman still hasn’t won three matches in a row since losing her Wimbledon title eight months ago.

Fourth-seeded Jankovic advanced to the semis when her opponent, sixth-seeded Anna Chakvetadze, retired with a left thigh injury. Jankovic confidently took the first set 6-1.

Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova and Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic are tied at 2-2 in their career meetings. The last time they played each other was last year in the final of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, when Jankovic won the title. (photos via Getty Images)

Second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova lost to fifteenth seed Sybille Bammer 6-3 7-6(8) in the third round of the $2.5 million Qatar Total Open.

Kuznetsova, who was runner-up last year in Doha, had her chances to stay in the match. In the second set she had multiple set points, and also managed to save three match points.

The fourth Bammer's match point, which in the end closed out the match, was very tense. In the windy conditions the players struggled — Kuznetsova to stay in the match, Bammer to finally finish it – and three times their long rallies were interrupted by a flying paper. The two of them were very concentrated, and didn’t seem to be distracted by this, but the rallies were so tense and long and the fact it was on the match point was stressful to watch.

In the quarterfinals, Austria’s Sybille Bammer will play Russia’s Vera Zvonareva, who beat eleventh-seeded Dinara Safina. (photo via Getty Images)

Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, the player who stunned defending champion Maria Sharapova in the third round of the 2007 US Open, scored her second major Grand Slam upset with a 6-3 6-4 win over second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach the last 16 at the Australian Open.

Radwanska, seeded 29th, raced into a 3-0 lead in the first set. Although Kuznetsova quickly leveled, her inconsistency returned and the confident Krakow teenager took three straight games to win the first set. The 18-year-old Radwanska rallied from 0-3 down in the second to take a 4-3 advantage, and after Kuznetsova tied, Radwanska took the final two games to score the victory.

"I was not playing against her, I was playing against me," said extremely disappointed Kuznetsova, who believed to be better prepared than even for the Australian Open. However, Radwanska believes that her determination was what gave her the victory: "I played against her a few times, always losing, so I said 'no more'."

In the fourth round Radwanska will play either 14th seed Nadia Petrova or Ekaterina Makarova. (photo via Getty Images)

World number nine Daniela Hantuchova saved five set points and eventually won the opening set, and after that the Slovakian quickly overcame Russian world number two Svetlana Kuznetsova. Final result: 7-6(7) 6-0.

Kuznetsova started the first set with a 3-0 lead, but battling Hantuchova fought back and took the set to a tiebreak. The tiebreak was tight, but the Slovakian stayed strong and won it. Hantuchova was clearly dominant in the second, and here’s the fact — Kuznetsova scored only four points in the first four games of the second set. How disappointing from the second-ranked player in the world. (photo via Getty Images)