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Svetlana Kuznetsova bowed out of the French Open after a marathon duel against Francesca Schiavone of Italy, but not before putting up a tough fight.
Fighter. That’s what the Russian is all about. And she tries to tell the story of her resilience through tattoos.
"You have the story of your own tattoos. A tattoo is something like history of your life, and I believe in it," she says.
After winning the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open, the 30-year-old was plagued by a chain of injuries.
Her tattoo, 'Pain Doesn't Kill Me; I Kill The Pain' came before her knee surgery in 2012.
On her left hand you can see some letters. Those are her parents and grandparents’ initials.
There is another on the inside of her left arm which is in Russian. It means 'Only God is our judge'.
The reason why she has a tiger on her stomach is: "I love tigers and anything with tiger prints. I think a tattoo describes a little bit of your personality. It stays with you forever. Sometimes you feel my motivation maybe to fight like a tiger."