MELBOURNE: Nadia Petrova continued with her “all or nothing attitude” to extend her giant-killing run through the Australian Open on Sunday, beating French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach the quarter-finals.
Petrova, who had dismantled US Open champion Kim Clijsters 6-0, 6-1 on the same court in Hisense Arena two days earlier, was not quite as ruthless on Sunday but still ran out a comfortable 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 winner.
The 27-year-old Russian, who was ranked as high as number three in the world in 2006, has been plagued with niggling injuries since 2007 and not won a tournament since Cincinnati in 2008.
However, a new attitude towards the game and to her high profile matches at Melbourne Park had allowed her to advance into a quarter-final with either Justine Henin or Yanina Wickmayer.
“When I played Kim, before going on court, I said, ‘it’s all or nothing, I gotta to give everything’ (and) I did,” Petrova told reporters.
“Same thing happened today. If I can continue doing this, I can get even further.”
Kuznetsova, who did not finish her third round match until around 2 a.m. on Saturday said she thought Petrova was playing better than she had in the past two years.
“I think she might have been right,” Petrova said when told of Kuznetsova’s observation.
“It’s not only that I’m playing well, but I think it’s just the whole composure on the court, it’s like one complete player.”
Petrova said she that composure had developed after she decided to look at tennis as just a game and to keep telling herself there were worse things to losing a match.
“It’s not the end of the world if you lose a match, because life goes on,” she said. “There is so many beautiful and wonderful things you can do besides that.
“I’ve learned to deal with the losses and I’ve learned to keep the motivation always up. Maybe right now because of that, I feel a little bit more relaxed.
“I’m not as stressed if I make a silly mistake or something doesn’t go my way because, you know, I still can make the best out of this day.”
