Agnieszka Radwanska labours through Andrea Petkovic to win Beijing title – China Open 2011
Eleventh seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska triumphed over the ninth seeded German Andrea Petkovic in a topsy turvy three setter match at the China Open 2011, a WTA Premier Mandatory event taking place in Olympic Green Tennis Center
in Beijing, People’s Republic of China. She registered a 7-5, 0-6, 6-4 success over the German to shelf her third title of the season on Sunday.
World number eight, Radwanska stepped off gas in the second set but overpowered the German, ranked one place below her in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, after displayed exquisite performance in the end of the first and
the last set. After earning this two hours and thirty-four minutes match victory, the Pole not only extended her lead in the head-to-head series by 5-0 against Petkovic but also clinched her seventh career title and third of the season.
The blooming Pole stormed into the first set and after getting the first blood in the opening game, he confidently progressed in the set. Later, she broke German’s serve again in the fifth game to go 4-1 up. However, Radwanska
lost her track afterwards and after losing her serve twice and exchanging a break after it, she squared the scores at 5-5. The pole rallied again to edge over Petkovic in the eleventh game and then kept her serve to clinch the opener by winning seven games
to five.
The furious 24-year-old German went into savage mode in the second set. She unleashed flurry of massive groundstrokes to reel off all six games in a row to earn a bagel. She cashed in on all three breakpoint opportunities to her
advantage and faced zero breakpoint to easily triumph the equaliser.
The Pole re-focused her strategy again. She got the desiderated break in the opening game but failed to save the breakpoint faced in the following game and levelled the scores. Same thing repeated in the next two games, after which
both starlets held their respective serves till the scores were tied at 4-4. Radwanska capitalised on another breakpoint chance to her advantage in the ninth game and ten held her serve to seal the decider with a 6-4 victory. She saved only one out of three
breakpoints came across but converted three out of four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to win comfortably.
"I'm very, very happy Andrea and I could play such an amazing match. Both of us played unbelievable," Radwanska said. "The first set was very tight, game by game. Then she killed me in the second set - It was hard to come back
but I did...I think it was the best final I've played…This is the biggest title of my career. It means a lot to me."
"Me and Agnieszka always have long matches. Even when it's two sets we always play very long rallies and always play good matches," Petkovic said. "In two or three days..I'll be able to look back at this as a really great match
and great entertainment for the people.”
The German had a convincing season herself as well. She bagged a title at Strasbourg after upsetting top seeded Marion Bartoli and she made into the last four at Miami, Carlsbad and Cincinnati.
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