PARIS: A chance meeting with Roger Federer at last year's Beijing Olympics helped Svetlana Kuznetsova straighten out her mind and sent her on her way to a second Grand Slam triumph at the French Open.

The 23-year-old had been struggling for months over what to do about her tennis career and whether or not to return to Russia, which she had left as a 13-year-old to hone her skills at a coaching academy in Spain.

She had even considered packing it all in all together.