Daniela Hantuchova squashes Urszula Radwanska in the second round – Pattaya Open 2012
Defending champion, Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, powered down the 21-years-old Pole, Urszula Radwanska, in the second round of the PTT Pattaya Open on Thursday. It was a one-sided encounter dominated by the inform Slovak, who
wasted little time in dismantling the booming Pole starlet in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.
It just took Hantuchova 79 minutes to oust her opponent, who was clearly not a competitive rival at the hard courts of Pattaya City, Thailand. In 2009, 20thranked Slovak locked horns with the Pole for the first time
in her career. It was the second round of the Warsaw Open and 28-years-old Hantuchova defeated the then-teenager in straight sets as well.
Radwanska enjoyed playing in the tournament and looks to groom her tennis skills in the hunt of breaking into the Top-64 players of the world. If she manages to do that before 21st of June, she will earn a direct entry
to London Olympics, later this year.
First set was pretty sloppy at both ends. The two players were looking to capitalize on their serves and not taking any chances to improvise and explore breakthroughs. First seven games went on without a breakpoint before the defending
champion broke the shackles and pulled her opponent out of her comfort zone.
The third seed Slovak was close on breaking her opponent’s serve in the sixth game as well but Radwanska sneaked a serve hold after saving a breakpoint. The Slovak served for the set and dropping just one point down gobbled up
the win to take the lead.
The second set was livelier as compared to the first one; both players started off in aggressive fashion. After holding the initial serve games, both contestants went through flurry of breakpoints, sharing them in a ratio of 2:1
to Hantuchova. With a successful hold in the sixth game, the Slovak consolidated her lead to 4-2.
Hantuchova broke serve for the third time in the set leaving her opponent in all sorts of trouble. She served for the match and successfully crushed down her rival to advance into the next round.
Hantuchova faces the eighth seed Vania King in the quarter-finals.
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