Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva were combining together for their first ever Grand Slam tournament but that did not stop them from winning the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open 2012.
They beat Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in a tough final, 5-7 6-4 6-3, to clinch their first Grand Slam title together as a pair.
Kuznetsova and Zvonareva have entered the final of 18 Grand Slam tournaments between them, combined in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, but were unseeded going into this tournament. The two paired together, much like some of the others in the world, to give themselves a chance to not only qualify for the Olympics but also go the distance.
“You can't compare this. You never can compare,” Kutznetsova said.
Kuznetsova had gone into the tournament with one women’s doubles win at the Australian Open before, when she won with Australian Alicia Molik. Zvonareva, on the other hand, had earlier won a US Open ladies doubles title in 2006.
Errani and Vinci, seeded 11th in this year’s Australian Open, had earlier defeated defending champions Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta in the third round and number six seeds Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina in the semi-finals.
The Italian pair won the first set after despite being broken thrice, thanks to the four breaks of the serve that they had. In the second set, the Russian pair had a chance to serve out at 5-3, but lost serve before breaking Errani and Vinci to make it one set all.
In the final set, the Russians went up a break early and maintained it to take the set and the championship in the hard-fought match.
Kuznetsova added, “I think we decided the night before sign in was closing. We both wanted to do better following the first set. We needed ... to improve our game. I think we [were] just talking about finding the right key. I think we did it in the middle of second set. We found the right game, what was good for us.”
