Svetlana Kuznetsova has no plans to travel to London as a reserve for the Olympic tennis team despite being selected for the role, she has said.
Russian Tennis Federation president Shamil Tarpishchev said Sunday that Kuznetsova would be the reserve to Russia’s six-woman Olympic team, led by world No. 1 Maria Sharapova.
“I don’t know why people think so, but I won’t go to the Olympics as a reserve,” Kuznetsova said on Twitter on Sunday.
“I’ll play a series of American tournaments.”
Kuznetsova reached the Olympic quarterfinal in Athens in 2004 but lost to Li Na in the first round in Beijing four years later.
The London Olympic tennis tournament will be played at Wimbledon, where Kuznetsova, a former French Open and U.S. Open champion has reached the quarterfinals on three occasions.
At 35th in the world, Kuznetsova is Russia’s sixth-highest ranked female tennis player and ranked above Olympic team members Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.
