US Open: Svetlana Kuznetsova edges Peng to reach last 32

Svetlana Kuznetsova

New York, Aug 30 (IANS) It took 2004 US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova nearly three hours to reach the third round Thursday as she beat Peng Shuai from China 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.

Peng was in trouble at the beginning of the first set, finding herself 0-5 down before claiming her first game. The 27th seeded Russian held serve in the seventh game to knock down the first set 6-1, reports Xinhua.

Peng seemed to become a different player in the second set. The two players had eight close games, in which neither player was able to break. Peng finished an important break in the ninth game, and then served out the set 6-4.

The final set went on to 2-2, and Peng took the chance to break once, but Kuznetsova broke back in the following game to level the score again.

Peng had an unfortunate injury when she was down 4-5. The 27-year-old Chinese couldn’t recover from the injury, losing the set 4-6 after saving one match point.