Agnieszka Radwanska pulls down Flavia Pennetta in the third round – BNP Paribas Open 2012
Pole tennis icon, Agnieszka Radwanska, cruised into the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open at the expense of the 25th ranked Italian, Flavia Pennetta. She dumped her in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 to register her fourth
head-to-head triumph in an hour and 32 minutes.
Radwanska has only lost once to the Italian in the Moorilla Hobart International tournament’s first round. It was an epic three-setter ending in the favour of Pennetta. Apart from that, she has defeated the 30-years-old Italian
in Biella 2007, Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships 2010 and the China Open 2011.
The longest starting game of the tournament was witnessed at the hard courts of California on Sunday when Radwanska served to kick-off the third round clash against Pennetta. She saved three breakpoints but failed to repeat the
similar performance on the fourth occurrence. The Italian player dropped just two points on her opening serve before consolidating the lead to 2-0.
Another breakthrough for the Italian opened up the chances of a major upset in the making and she cruised past her opponent with a lead of 3-0. A remarkable turnaround in the proceedings was witnessed when the fifth ranked Pole
jumped back into the contest by bagging three games on the trot; registering a couple of successive breakthroughs as well.
The proceedings were brought into the balance with Radwanska having the upper hand, courtesy to a mind-startling run in the recent games. Both players held their respective serves to push the scores at 4-4. The tie-breaker round
was on the cards but Radwanska pounced on her opponent in the 10th game and broke serve for the third time to take the set away from the Italian.
A trade of break points in the second set took the scores to 1-1; serve holds at both ends kept the scores together at 2-2 before the Pole pumped life into the play with her eye-startling winners down the line.
She held her serve and crushed her opponent down in the sixth game to earn a crucial breakpoint. She led the scores 4-2 at that stage. Another breakthrough pulled curtains for the Italian and the Pole marches on to face the local
starlet, Jamie Hampton.
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