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COPYRIGHT 2005 South Florida Sun-Sentinal
Byline: Charles Bricker
NEW YORK _ She was the accidental champion a year ago. Monday, on a historic opening day at the U.S. Open, Svetlana Kuznetsova became the incidental champion.
For the first time in the 118-year history of the women's tournament here, a defending champ was knocked out in the first round and the only plausible reason was Kuznetsova's own lack of emotional strength.
"Of course I'm disappointed to lose that match. But things like this happen. It's happened to many top players. It happened to me," she said somberly after going down ignominiously to obscure fellow Russian Ekaterina Bychkova 6-3, 6-2.
The 97th-ranked Bychkova, who was only 3-5 in a handful of WTA Tour matches this season, did little more in this stunning upset than feed safe, deep balls to the powerfully built champ.
Kuznetsova shot almost nothing...
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