Kuznetsova smashes Venus Williams's dream of Wuhan Open title defence

Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia brought Venus Williams's title defence to an abrupt end at the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Wuhan Open with a dominant victory in their eagerly anticipated third-round showdown here on Wednesday.

Five service breaks helped Kuznetsova stroll to a 6-2, 6-2 win over the American and a quarter-final encounter with either Agnieszka Radwanska or Caroline Wozniacki, reports Xinhua.

"It was a good match. I don't think Venus played her best game. But I've been confident and I've been playing well," said the ninth-seeded Russian.

Kuznetsova is now ranked 10th and has a good chance to reach the WTA Finals Singapore as she just knocked out seventh-ranked Venus and eighth-ranked Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain was eliminated by Britain's Johanna Konta 7-5, 7-6(6) in the third round.

"I've been struggling with my ranking. I was 20, 25 for the past years. This year it went up quite good for me. Now the possibility to be in Singapore definitely makes me feel better, gives me more motivation as well."

After the early exit, Venus will next move to Beijing for next week's China Open.

"I think she (Kuznetsova) just played well. Not every day is your day. Hopefully I'll be able to come back next year and play amazing tennis," said the sixth-seeded Venus.

"It just definitely wasn't the best day on the court for me. Like I said, she played really well. Total credit to her. I'm just going to go to Beijing and try to play well there."

--IANS

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