Focussed Kuznetsova in Rome final

Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova stormed into the WTA Rome claycourt International final with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Victoria Azarenka yesterday.

Focussed Kuznetsova in Rome final

Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova stormed into the WTA Rome claycourt International final with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Victoria Azarenka yesterday.

Seventh seed Kuznetsova thus reached her second final here after losing to Jelena Jankovic, whom she defeated in Thursday's quarter-final, two years ago.

Great form
Having won in Stuttgart last week, beating World No 1 Dinara Safina in the final, she is the form player on the tour at the moment.

But even with Roland Garros beginning at the end of the month, the World No 8 said she is solely focussed on winning this tournament.

"I'm not thinking about that right now, the French Open, for me, is still too far away," she said.

"For me, it's this tournament. I've been playing lots of matches so I'm just focusing on doing my best."

The result never looked in doubt as she dominated her Belorussian opponent from the start, breezing through the first set with three breaks of serve to one. However, the sixth seeded teenager broke Kuznetsova in the first game of the second set and looked to make more of a fist of things.

However, the match turned on a controversial point at 2-0 to Azarenka, when on game point Kuznetsova hit a shot that television replays showed had landed just out.

The umpire called it in despite Azarenka's vociferous protests and the 19-year-old let the matter get to her as she lost her way, and five straight games.

Frustrated
After the match, Azarenka was still frustrated about that point at 2-0.

"When you don't play your best and then you finally have a chance and you're up a break and you have another chance to break again and the umpire comes and just shows you a spot where there's no mark or nothing at all and tells you that this is the mark, I think that's pretty bad," she said.