Svetlana Kuznetsova could have been competing for a cycling gold medal at the Athens Olympics two weeks ago, instead she has become the first Russian women's singles champion at the U.S. Open.
Her 6-3, 7-5 win over countrywoman Elena Dementieva on Saturday catapulted the 19-year-old into the tennis elite, following in the tracks of fellow Russians Anastasia Myskina and Maria Sharapova, who won the French Open and Wimbledon titles earlier this year.
"This is unbelievable, I'm so excited, maybe I was shocked," said ninth seed Kuznetsova, whose mother Galina is a six-times world cycling champion and whose father Alexandr is an Olympic coach.
"I was so nervous in the morning, when I went to practice I was a bit stiff. But, you know, it's weird, sometimes you are afraid of this feeling but something inside of me was telling me I would be fine," she told reporters.
Kuznetsova, who is also in Sunday's doubles final with Elena Likhovtseva, said a quick chat with 18-times Grand Slam singles winner and former doubles partner Martina Navratilova helped calm her nerves.
"I was like, 'Man, what am I gonna do?' I was talking to everybody.
GREEN OR BLUE
"I think Martina saw me and she thought I was maybe going green or blue and she said, 'Okay, look, remember, I did it when it was my first final, and I won my first final. So you can do it, too'."
Kuznetsova, whose brother Nikolai won a cycling silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, came to Flushing Meadows as the fourth-ranked Russian and firmly in the shadows of Sharapova and Myskina, not to mention Dementieva.
But she leaves one million dollars richer and her name will no longer simply be regarded as "just another Russian".
"I want success. I want to do something, you know. I really want people to remember my name," said Kuznetsova, who travelled to Spain when she was 14 to further her tennis career.
"When I got to 30 in the world (rankings) I thought, 'I want more than this, I have to do better'. Then I got to 10, I always want to do better."
Kuznetsova blazed through to the semi-finals without dropping a set before coming from behind to beat home favourite Lindsay Davenport and dismantling a fatigued Dementieva with a devastating power game.
"I was just going for the maximum. I was going as fast and as hard as I could, I just wanted to hit harder and harder," she said.
"I think I just hit it great, you know."
