Maria Kirilenko stuns Agnieszka Radwanska to reach the last eight – BNP Paribas Open 2013
World number 15, Maria Kirilenko, riffled a barrage of winners at the fourth ranked Pole star, Agnieszka Radwanska, to register an upset on the night of Tuesday. She clinched the BNP Paribas Open fourth round victory at Indian
Wells in an enthralling three-setter with the final scores line of 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.
Ironically, the 13th seed Russian had not beaten the 24-year-old Pole since November 2009. She lost five matches in a row to Radwanska and it was her ninth head-to-head clash overall. With just a couple of victories
in the past, Kirilenko was the clear second favourite to win the encounter. However, the 26-year-old Russian defied the odds at the hard courts of Indian Wells and registered a terrific victory to to reach the last eight.
Kirilenko commented at the end of the contest, “Every time we play it's so difficult; every time it seems like déjà vu, the score is the same and everything is the same. Just today I was a little bit luckier. I lost to her the
last four or five times I think, and it was kind of a similar match to previous ones, but this time it worked out for me.”
She further added about her style of play, “Well actually I'm also the kind of player who's playing a different ball. Of course to beat Agnieszka you need to be more aggressive at times. You have to really focus on every point
too.”
The opening set witnessed a hat-trick of breakpoints for the Russian who never faltered on her serve; ending the first phase in just seven games. The Pole started to find some rhythm towards the end of the second set and finally
got a critical breakthrough in the ninth game that proved to be the lifeline for her.
Radwanska won the breakpoint in the first game of the final set but the timely comeback from Kirilenko brought the scores level at 3-3. Both players swapped breakthroughs in the eighth and ninth game. The match was on the verge
of entering the tie-breaker round but Radwanska fell apart in the 12th game that allowed Kirilenko to book a date with the Czech star, Petra Kvitova, in the quarter-finals.
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