Long flight, no problem! Kuznetsova exercises haircut magic, beats Radwanska at the WTA Finals

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Wilson Blade 9

Svetlana Kuznetsova showed few signs of fatigue from her late Singapore arrival, as the Russian kicked off the White Group action with a thrilling victory over defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska.

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The first break of the match went to Radwanska and one game later the Pole had a considerable lead, 4-1. The eighth-seeded Kuznetsova fought back by winning both the break points she earned and won the first set when Radwanska netted a forehand.

In the second set, Radwanska was again the first to go up, 2-0, and even though the seed No.2 dropped serve in the following game, she went on to win all the remaining games to force the third set.

Allowing Radwanska to start the decider with 2-0, Kuznetsova finally held serve, for the first time since the first set and what followed was something we had never seen before: Kuznetsova cut a considerable part of her ponytail during the changeover! The haircut ritual (or just a necessity for practical reasons) worked, at least temporarily, and Kuznetsova leveled to 2-2! Radwanska went up 4-2 and even though Kuznetsova leveled again, Radwanska was serving for the set at 5-4. But it was not an end for the two-time Grand Slam champion, who saved one match point, yet again leveled the match and proceeded to win it 7-5 1-6 7-5 in two hours and 48 minutes.

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Kuznetsova is the WTA player with most three-setters won in 2016 (21). Radwanska has never beaten Kuznetsova after losing the first set. Kuznetsova now leads their H2H 13-4.

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