Agnieszka Radwanska upsets Vera Zvonareva to clinch title – Mercury Insurance Open 2011
Third seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska stunned everyone after clinching title at La Costa Resort and Spa, held on the hard courts of Carlsbad in California, United States, with a surprise victory over the top seeded Russian Vera
Zvonareva on Sunday. She earned a 6-3, 6-4 success over the 26-year-old Russian to clinch title at the Mercury Insurance Open for the first time since 2008.
The Polish number one, Radwanska conquered world number three and Carlsbad to shelf fifth and the biggest WTA title if her career. However, it was her first in three years. The Pole reached her previous final at this tournament
last year but she displayed nerves of steel to down the Russian for the first in straight sets in their third meeting. The beaming pole said after the match, “I would have been happy to be in the final again. But to take the title is better, of course - I
had that in the back of my mind."
22-year-old Pole smoothly entered the opening set and reeled off entire serves through maintaining consistency in her game. She was never threatened by the Russian as she faced zero breakpoint and converted one out of four breakpoint
opportunities to her advantage to clinch the opener with a 6-3 win.
Radwanska kept momentum rolling into the final set and held entire serves after fending off two breakpoints faced. She then cashed in on one out of two breakpoint chances to her advantage to pocket the set by winning six games
to four.
Overall, the Pole outshined Zvonareva completely as she manifested 71 percent of first serve share which was much better than Russian’s 57 percent. She also registered a fabulous 74 percent win on it to win comfortably.
"Everything was working," Radwanska said. "Even though I had two really tough matches in the quarters and semi-finals, I played very well today. I really wanted to win this tournament so I was really focused from the beginning.
Winning a tournament with a lot of great matches against top players is always very special."
The highest ranked player of the tournament, Zvonareva was standing on her career best nine match winning streak. She won the title at Baku and continued her run of form to reach the final here. She praised the winning seed by
saying, "Agnieszka played a really good, clean match. She played the way she usually plays, but just didn't make any unforced errors. When Agnieszka's playing well, if you make mistakes, it's tough to win the match."
Despite making comeback victories at her quarter and semi-final clashes against Daniela Hantuchova and Andrea Petkovic, Radwanska confidently bagged a straight set victory in the title match.
It was Radwanska’s third win over a top three player and she has now confidently moved on to Toronto where she will be playing at the 2011 Rogers Cup.
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