SINGAPORE -- A physically spent Svetlana Kuznetsova claimed a draining 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 win over defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska in nearly 3 hours at the WTA Finals on Monday.
Kuznetsova, who saved a match point on Radwanska's serve near the end, eventually prevailed on a third match point to break Radwanska's serve.
"At some point, I was just ready to let it go, just lay on the court and let them take me out of here," Kuznetsova told the cheering crowd. "I was just trying to stay in there and hang in there."
Kuznetsova was the final player to earn a berth into the eight-player, year-end championships when she defended her Moscow title Saturday.
The Russian arrived in Singapore on Sunday afternoon after a grueling four weeks of chasing a spot in the WTA Finals for the first time since 2009. She played three tournaments in China ahead of taking a wild card into the Moscow tournament.
In a bizarre move while trailing 1-2 and down a break in the third set, Kuznetsova took a pair of scissors to the back of her head and cut off a portion of her braid during the changeover.
"It was bothering me a lot," said the Russian, who asked the umpire to have scissors brought to the court. "When I was hitting forehands, every time I would hit a good shot, it would hit my eye."
She added: "I thought, 'OK, what's more important now, my hair, which I can let grow, or the match?'"
Kuznetsova broke Radwanska's serve after the impromptu haircut, but after dropping her serve again in the fifth game, she cried into her towel on the changeover.
Still, trailing 2-4, Kuznetsova refused to surrender and climbed back into the set.
The hair Kuznetsova chopped off remained on her chair for the remainder of the match.
The drama continued in the second match, when Karolina Pliskova, who was up by a set and a break, came back from 2-5 down in the third set to defeat Garbine Muguruza 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-5.
Muguruza had one match point at 5-2, 40-30, but couldn't close down Pliskova, who won 20 of the final 24 points.
"I'm very happy that I made it," said Pliskova, making her WTA Finals debut this week in singles and doubles. "This doesn't happen every day."
Kuznetsova and Pliskova stand at 1-0 in White Group action, while Radwanska and Muguruza are 0-1.