Svetlana Kuznetsova ends title drought, but Agnieszka Radwanska makes her earn it at Carlsbad

Reporting from Carlsbad, Calif. — It had been just over 10 months since Svetlana Kuznetsova last won a tournament. On Sunday, Agnieszka Radwanska tried to prolong that drought as long as she could.

After 2 hours 35 minutes of play at La Costa resort, the unseeded Kuznetsova converted her fifth match point, sending the ball past Radwanska’s right side to win the Mercury Insurance Open title, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-3.

The last point was a “big relief,” Kuznetsova said. “First of all, after such a long time not winning. Second of all, after losing the second set, which I had to win.”

Kuznetsova held a 5-3 lead in the second set, but the No. 4-seeded Radwanska came back to tie it at 6-6. The Russian took a 6-3 lead in the tiebreaker, but couldn’t close out the match. She played four match points, double-faulting in two, and her Polish opponent stormed back to win the tiebreaker, 9-7, and send the match into a third set.

“Match points or very important moments, the hand is shaking and it’s hard to close the match,” Radwanska said. “I think she got nervous and that’s why she did some mistakes that shouldn’t have happened.”

But Kuznetsova came out strong in the third set and captured her first title since she won the China Open in October 2009, also over Radwanska.

“The nerves went away, I came onto the court and I was completely fine,” Kuznetsova said.

It was also Radwanska’s first final since Beijing, though she has reached the semifinals of three tournaments and is ranked No. 10 in the world. The two have played 10 times in the last three years, and Radwanska said their matches are usually tough.

“It’s much easier to lose, 6-1, 6-1, and have no chance,” she said. “A match like this, it always hurts.”

The winner of two Grand Slam events, the 2004 U.S. Open and 2009 French Open, along with many other titles, Kuznetsova had had a difficult 2010 before this week, falling from a No. 3 world ranking at the end of 2009 to her current spot, No. 21. But she said the results at Carlsbad show she can still play top competition.

“Every single player was so different in my draw,” she said. “. . . I had all the types of players and I could beat them. So it means I’m a certain level.”

Kuznetsova defeated No. 8-seeded Yanina Wickmayer in the first round at La Costa and No. 5-seeded Flavia Pennetta in the semifinals.

Her next challenge will be a match against Maria Sharapova, who is ranked No. 13, on Tuesday in Cincinnati.

Although Kuznetsova’s recent problems seemed magnified in the tiebreaker Sunday, they faded with the victory.

“I just want to put the serve in . . . and I miss it two meters behind the line,” Kuznetsova said. “Sometimes I think about it — I’m 25, I started to play tennis at 7. After 18 years, I cannot make my serve to put this little ball in this big court? It really makes me think about what I’m doing here.

“But so far, winning tournaments, so it’s not bad. I’m doing something right.”

Maria Kirilenko and Jie Zheng defeated Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs, 6-4, 6-4, for the doubles title.

laura.myers@latimes.com