Svetlana Kuznetsova will be making a Skype call to her greatest supporter to tell him about making a fourth ladies’ singles quarter-final at Wimbledon thanks to an impressive 6-2, 6-4 win over No.9 seed Agnieszka Radwanska.
On the other end of the call will be Dolce, a 50-pound American Bulldog, who is designated as Kuznetsova’s emotional support and accompanies her on the American hard court swing of the tennis season.
At Wimbledon Kuznetsova is dog-less and while she would love to have him in London, finding someone to sit with Dolce while she is away on court would be a problem. Given the breed of dog, you would assume he is big enough to look after himself but Kuznetsova, a double Grand Slam winner, insists Dolce is a big softie who has to be carried around in public.
An understandably delighted Kuznetsova said: "He (Dolce) is not here but I can Skype him. I have to have somebody to sit with him, because he doesn't stay by himself. He hates it, so he starts peeing everywhere! It's kind of Staffordshire terrier with pit bull, this breed. He's extremely kind. If I travel, I have to carry him because he's afraid of everything. He weighs like 23 kilos - looks really strange, me carrying the dog.
“I travel with him (Dolce) more to the States because he's my emotional support animal. He's like a service dog. And for me it's much better. Like in order to get this paper to be emotional support, I have to talk to the psychologist and say why do I need the dog? And I explain that I'm a tennis player and I feel very lonely on the road and I'm depressed many times.
He's my emotional support animal. He's like a service dog
"It's all true, because it's really hard mental thing. My dog lets me relax. You know, we are all humans. If you lose, your team go a little bit like sad. If you win, happy. My dog is always happy. Always the same. He's next to me. If I would be Roger Federer, I would get private jet everywhere and travel with my dog, but you see it cannot happen.”
Kuznetsova has been flying under the radar so far at Wimbledon and believes her record deserves more attention from those outside the game.
"I feel respected by my achievements, but of course I think I should get more from the fans and from the press," she said. "But, you see, there is not many things in life which you say everything is fair, fair, fair, fair. No, there are some things which are unfair. And I'm accepting that.”
This victory was a result that also maintained Kuznetsova’s winning record against Radwanksa which now sees the Russian No.7 seed 14-4 ahead in meetings between the players.
Kuznetsova will now face Spain’s No.14 seed Garbine Muguruza in her first appearance at this stage since 2007. It will be their first meeting on grass.
