Agnieszka Radwanska cruises past Roberta Vinci to reach semis – Apia International Sydney 2013
World number four, Agnieszka Radwanska, had to labour for 94 minutes before overcoming the 16th ranked Italian, Roberta Vinci, in the quarter-final rounds of Apia International Sydney on Wednesday afternoon. The top
seeded Pole wrapped up her victory in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5, to book a spot in the WTA Tour level tournament in Sydney, Australia.
Radwanska was already rated as the hot favourite for winning the quarter-final battle against the Italian number two. She did it in style and didn’t let Vinci to claim a set in the contest. Radwanska took a steady start to the
match and gradually built up her pace to cruise through the later games. She faced a serious challenge from the world number 16 in the second set but kept her focus in the match to rally past her in the end.
The opening set of the match witnessed no break points in the opening six games. It was Radwanska who drew first blood in the seventh game and broke into a 5-3 lead later. Vinci held one more serve in the set before the top seeded
Pole served out of the opener at 5-4 to get the upper hand in the match.
Vinci came back very strongly in the following set and nailed an early break point in the fourth game to impose a 3-1 lead over the superior ranked opponent. Radwanska responded immediately in the next game and eventually levelled
the score line at 3-3. A couple of serve holds from both sides dragged the scores to 5-5 and it appeared as if a tie-breaker would come into play. Radwanska shifted her gears in the 11th game and stung a cracking serve break to lead 6-5. Vinci failed
to break her opponent in the all-important 12th game and finished off the set at 5-7 to fall out of the tournament in a dismal manner.
Radwanska will have to wait for the conclusion of the other quarter-final matchup between the fourth seeded Li Na and the American qualifier, Madison Keys. Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova also cleared her quarter-final round against
the third seed Sara Errani to reach the round of four.
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