All russian final at the US Open 2004

By Laura Weydandt
September 11 2004

World number 9 Svetlana Kuznetsova and an injury stopped Lindsay Davenport in the semi-final of the US Open. Also Jennifer Capriati was not able to make it into the final, French open finalist Elena Dementieva stopped her in three sets.

In the first set Lindsay Davenport dominated the match. Kuznetsova didn’t find her game and no method against Davenport’s ground strokes. Davenport won the first set easily 6:1 and looked like the clear winner of the match.
Than in the second set Kuznetsova started to find her game back. Now she was the one who dominated the match. Kuznetsova started to serve better and Davenport lost more and more the control of the match. The second set went 6:2 to Svetlana Kuznetsova.
After the second set, Davenport left the court and took a medical out time.
Both players hold their serve until 4:4. However Davenport had now more and more problems with her moving due to her injury. Kuznetsova broke her serve to 5:4. Kuznetsova, who served than for the match, was on fire and took the last set 6:4.

With her victory over Lindsay Davenport, Svetlana Kuznetsova also destroyed the chances of Lindsay Davenport to become the new number one.
The new number one will become french woman Amélie Mauresmo on Monday.

Jennifer Capriati had also no good start in her semi-final. She totally missed the first set and lost it 0:6. Elena Dementieva dominated with powerful shots during the first set.
N the second set, Capriati started to play much better. She didn’t make so many errors than in the first set and started to hit winners. Also Dementieva got again problems with her serve. Capriati saw her chances and won the second set 6:2. In the last set both players played great tennis. There were many ups and downs with many breaks but in the end they had to play a tie break. And it was once again Elena Dementieva who had more luck and better nerves, she took the tie break 7:5.

For Elena Dementieva it will be, after the French Open, her second grand slam final this year. Svetlana Kuznetsova will make her first appearance in a grand slam final.

All results:

Singles - Semifinals
(9) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) d. (5) Lindsay Davenport (USA) 1:6 6:2 6:4
(6) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. (8) Jennifer Capriati (USA) 6:0 2:6 7:6(5)

Doubles - Semifinal
(1) Ruano Pascual/Suarez (ESP/ARG) d. (15) Dementieva/Sugiyama (RUS/JPN) w/o (Dementieva exhausted)

Mixed Doubles - Final
(4) Zvonareva/B.Bryan (RUS/USA) d. Molik/Woodbridge (AUS/AUS) 6:3 6:4