Started the year as World No 35, but won Eastbourne in the build-up to Wimbledon and then the US Open, her first Grand Slam tournament, aged just 19.
She was 9th seed at Flushing Meadows, beating former World No 1 Lindsay Davenport, who was on a 22-match unbeaten streak at the time, in the semi-finals, and Elena Dementieva in the first ever all-Russian Grand Slam final. She finished the year ranked No 5 and her 60 singles wins were third only to Lindsay Davenport and Amelie Mauresmo's 63.
In the US Open final, Kuznetsova recovered from losing her first service game with two breaks of her own to take the first set. And she twice fought back from a break down in the second set for a 6-3 7-5 win.
Another of the amazing group of Russian women who are coming to dominate world tennis, she said: “When I got to 30 in the world I thought, 'I want more than this, I have to do better'. Then I got to 10, but I always want to do better."
