Kuznetsova on an up cycle

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Most kids want a bicycle. A little Russian girl in St. Petersburg named Svetlana Kuznetsova had so many of them that she could have opened a bicycle shop.

Bikes ran -- or, shall we say, rolled -- in the family. Both her mother and father were world champion cyclists, and continue as prominent coaches.

But it turned out that the wheels on which Svetlana has taken triumphant spins across the planet are the kind that fit into sneakers. You could feel folks in the sun-baked gathering of 12,555 at Crandon Park yesterday thinking, ''Great wheels on that kid Kuznetsova!"

While the phalanx of courtside photographers concentrated on her foe, magazine cover girl Maria Sharapova, Kuznetsova was concentrating her own shots -- particularly a brightly clicking forehand -- on the places where Sharapova wasn't.

Though the legs of the 6-foot-2-inch Sharapova are more famous, the sturdy wheels of Kuznetsova carried the afternoon in an unexpected result: Kuznetsova across the finish line, 6-4, 6-3, in 90 minutes.

This Nasdaq-100 Open championship collision was the ninth intramural Russian final since the women from Tolstoy's land began making war peacefully in the game of tennis. Both had won majors in 2004 (Sharapova, Wimbledon; Kuznetsova, the US Open) but life has gone better for Sharapova, who is No. 4.

Sharapova, winner of seven titles since Wimbledon, was riding an 11-match streak, a recent victor at Indian Wells; Kuznetsova tumbled to No. 18 in 2005, and came in here at No. 14. Her drought following US Open success has included just one title (a minor, Bali), shoulder and back injuries, and a crisis of confidence.

She had trouble closing.

''I had 2 match points against Anastasia Myskina at the French Open in 2004, but missed," said Kuznetsova. ''She went on to be champion. Same in Paris last year. Against Justine Henin-Hardenne, 2 match points. I miss close shots, and she becomes champion.

''Now here, I have a match point against Martina Hingis, and I make a good volley. Before that, in the third-set tiebreaker, she had one against me. I saved it."

Not even a new bike under the Christmas tree would make somebody feel as great.

''The match against Hingis was a key to get more confidence," she said.

Bikes were all over the place when she was growing up.

''We traveled all the time, to championships," she said. ''What I saw then was only bikes. I did some races when I was 10 and the other girls were 17. I loved to do it, but then one day, suddenly, my dad said, 'You got to do something else.' He sent me to play tennis, and in the end I decided to play tennis by my own."

So they shipped her to Spain to train, and now she thinks of cycling as ''boring."

''Yes, I speak Spanish, and I think people in the crowd liked it when I would say, 'Vamos!' to get myself going," she said.

Kuznetsova thought a lot of people were backing her, reacting to the bad press Sharapova got for her behavior in the semis. Sharapova's opponent, Russian-born Tatiana Golovin, fell, tearing ligaments in an ankle during the tense third set. While Golovin, weeping in pain, was attended by a trainer, Sharapova turned her back, offering no sympathy.

Often hitting on the run, Kuznetsova broke down Sharapova's forehand with her own, and jumped to a 3-1 lead.

''She was hitting winners all over, and I couldn't get my feet moving the way I wanted," said Sharapova. ''She was hitting big shots that made me try to hit bigger, and there were mistakes."

Down, 2-5, Sharapova struggled through five deuces and a set point, staying alive in the set at 5-3. Whereupon she broke Kuznetsova with a brilliantly angled two-fisted backhand. However, Kuznetsova's confidence surged. She pierced Sharapova with one of those rare goodies -- a drop shot -- and a ripping forehand, coupled with two errors for the set.

Once more the 20-year-old new champ bounded ahead, to 4-1, then 5-2. Shrieking Sharapova, more toned down than usual, did issue one very loud quote -- ''Aye-yie-yie!" -- in stretching desperately for a ball that took Kuznetsova to match point at 5-3, 40-15. Kuznetsova took no chances with this match point -- she belted her fourth ace down the middle. ''I did that, too, when I won the US Open [over Elena Dementieva]. Ace on match point."

Kuznetsova's dash through the tournament to $533,350 left footprints on a tough cast: No. 46 Vera Zvonareva; No. 24 Hingis; No. 23 Ai Sugiyama; No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo; No. 4 Sharapova. The run raised her to No. 10, and restored pride.

Sharapova, loser of the 2005 final to Kim Clijsters, probably wishes Kuznetsova had stayed on the bike.