The 2011 Internazionali d’Italia is worth just over two million dollars in prize money. Unfortunately, Svetlana Kuznetsova won’t be adding this to her career earnings of over fifteen million dollars.

Kuznetsova was unable to make it past the first round of the event. Her loss came at the hands of Greta Arn. While the match lasted for over three hours, Kuznetsova simply couldn’t pull out a victory on the court’s red clay.

Spring of 2011 Not a Highlight for Svetlana’s Career

Her loss to Arn comes just weeks after she was knocked out of the Madrid Open. Kuznetsova’s Madrid Open loss also came during the first round of the event. This loss was administered to her by Dominika Cibulkova. Cibulkova went on to beat Agnes Szavay and Maria Sharapova before losing to Petra Kvitova. Kvitova then won the event by defeating Victoria Azarenka.

2011 Began on Rocky Ground Despite One High Point for Kuznetsova

2011 did not begin the way Svetlana likely envisioned in her mind. In January, she competed in the ASB Classic. She defeated Sacha Jones in the opening round. She then lost to China’s Peng Shuai. Shuai won the next round against Heather Watson but then lost to the event’s runner-up, Yanina Wickmayer.

January also saw Svetlana take part in the Medibank International. Kuznetsova began this Sydney event against Virginie Razzano. Unfortunately, this matched her all too common 2011 trend of losing in the first round.

The high point of the year’s first quarter came when she came in as the runner-up of the Dubai Tennis Championships. She reached this point by defeating Nuria Llagostera Vives, Tsvetana Pironkova, Francesca Schiavone, Agnieszka Radwanska and Flavia Pennetta. Her winning streak came to an end when she faced Caroline Wozniacki in the final.