Agnieszka Radwanska overpowers Andrea Petkovic in the second round – Apia International Sydney 2012
An enthralling battle between the Pole world number eight, Agnieszka Radwanska and world number 10, Andrea Petkovic, was witnessed at the Olympic Sydney Park during the second round clash of Apia Sydney International 2012 on Tuesday.
Both players were facing off against one another for the sixth time in their career and German Petkovic lost yet another opportunity to get off the mark; her rival sealed the win with a score of 7-5, 6-4 in just over an hour and 56 minutes.
Seventh seed Pole has a terrific head-to-head record against Petkovic as she has won all the six encounters till date. The unbeaten run started way back in 2009 in Tokyo Japan and both players squared off once again one year later
in the same arena. They had three battles last year in Mercury Insurance Open, Rogers Cup and China Open. Pole has won all these encounters and German still await her first triumph against her.
An emphatic start to the match was witnessed, as both players broke their rival’s serve in the first three games. Radwanska was the first to hold her serve in the fourth game and take the lead of 3-1 in the opener. German followed
her competitor’s footsteps and held her serve in the next game. An enthralling battle in the sixth game was seen, as eleven deuces were enforced by both players and at last the inferior ranked German broke to level the scores at 3-3.
Everyone in the arena was thrilled and was almost pushed to the edge of their seats by the gravity of the battle at the courts. Both players continued to provide a classic contest for the viewers; held their respective serves as
the score moved to 5-5. Radwanska nailed her opponent in the eleventh game as she played some jaw-dropping down the line winners; broke Petkovic’s serve and held her own to round off the first set proceedings.
Trailing one set down, German knew she could pull off an upset, for both players were separated by just two ranks. Traditional start to the set witnessed both players hanging on to their serves in the first two games. German looked
promising but made couple of errors and slipped during a rally in the third game that gave an easy break to her opponent, letting her to lead the set with two games. The German fought back with a break but tables were turned upon her as her serve was broken
in the next game and the advantage swung back to the seventh seed.
Pole took the victory and placed herself in the third round and has the toughest draw as she locks horns with the reigning world number one, Caroline Wozniacki.
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