Agnieszka Radwanska defeats Varvara Lepchenko to move into the last four – Qatar Total Open 2012
World number six, Agnieszka Radwanska, defeated the 25-years-old American contestant, Varvara Lepchenko, in the third round of the Qatar Total Open on Thursday. The match lasted for 91 minutes before the Pole sealed victory
in straight sets 7-5, 6-1.
Both players met blow-by-blow for the first half of the match, not allowing their opponent to her head ahead of them. The Pole was once pressurized by the American in the fifth game of the opening set, where she had to save
a couple of breakpoints to register a successful hold. Scores were tied at 4-4 when the crowd witnessed a severe onslaught from both ends.
It was the Pole who was the initial victim of the momentum swing; she lost serve game in the ninth game but did well to stay in the set with a break back in the next game to level the scores at 5-5. She continued playing
aggressively and bagged another serve game with her opponent left in a ‘do or die’ situation. Lepchenko had to hold on to survive in the set but she failed to do so, allowing her opponent to take the lead.
The fourth seed carried the momentum into the second half of the match crushing her opponent down with an early lead of 3-0. She had registered a breakthrough and was looking extremely threatening especially with her enthralling
cross-court winners. Lepchenko failed to deliver in the crunch situation; lost the serve game and trailed 1-5 with her opponent getting ready to serve for the match.
Nothing was going in favour of the American who had played extremely well in the first set. It was an all-Radwanska show in the second half. The pole pocketed the following game, dropping two points, and progressed into the
quarter-final stage of the tournament.
This is what Radwanska had to say about her triumph in the match: “Varvara started very well today. I was really in trouble at the end of the first set. When it was 5-4, 40-15 for her, I was thinking I lost the set already
and that we would just keep playing. But when you're on the court it doesn't matter what score it is, you just fight until the end. I did a few good shots and won that game, and then after that felt more and more confident.”
She and Christina McHale will contest against one another for a place in the last four.
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