Kuznetsova wins battle of nerves against Williams

Today at Roland Garros, Svetlana Kuznetsova ended Serena Williams' chance to win a second French Open by defeating her 7-6, 5-7, 7-5 in the semifinals. You could look at this match from two perspectives: 1. Kuznetsova, through a mental collapse, caused this match to go on much longer than it should have, or...2. Kuznetsova, through an impressive display of mental toughness, took this match away from Williams just when it appeared she owned it.

Both perspectives would be correct. And if you looked at the stats, you might assume that Williams won the match: She had a better first serve win percentage than Kuznetsova, and she hit eleven more winners. The players' break point conversion stats were identical, as were their net win stats. It was indeed a close match, and it took almost three hours to play it.

In the first set, serving at 5-6, Kuznetsova saved a set point. She would go on to win that set with a decisive 7-3 score in the tiebreak. In the second set, Kuznetsova was up 4-2, 40-30, but when she went to return a ball, her toe caught the clay and she fell onto her side. There was no harm done to her ankle, but her momentum was interrupted, and it was obvious that the injury was to her psyche. Covered with clay, she returned to the game, but was broken. Williams evened the score, and then broke her again. At this point, Kuznetsova was making errors and looking tired, and the momentum was obviously with Williams, who won the set, 7-5.

If you follow women's tennis, and you expected Williams to take charge of the third set and go to the semifinals, you have no reason to second-guess yourself. So many times, we have seen Kuznetsova fail to recover from a mental collapse. And so many times, we have seen Serena turn straw, grass, and even clay to gold just when the pressure was at its greatest.

But not today. Today it was the other way around. Kuznetsova found her groove again in the third set, and it was Williams who could not hold her nerve when it counted. Williams did go up an early break to take a 3-1 lead, and she saved two match points at 4-5. At that point, it was natural to predict that the momentum would go right back to Williams again, only it didn't. After Williams converted the score to 5-all, she became error-prone, and Kuznetsova moved in to break and hold, taking the set at 7-5.