On Saturday, Svetlana Kuznetsova, a 19-year-old from St. Petersburg, Russia, beat Elena Dementieva, a Muscovite, to win the women’s title at the US Open.
This year, Russian women won three out of the four Grand Slams, and two of the finals were all-Russian. Dementieva played in, and lost, both. She’s a very nice, intelligent, well-mannered girl (I remember who the whole Roland Garros seemed to applaud when she–having just lost the final–addressed the stadium in French), but she’s not a natural-born winner.
It’s OK: a player’s goal is to win; but surely there’s more to life than just winning.