TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships 2011: Radwanska & Sharapova – Part Three
Eight seeded Agnieszka Radwanska
Pole Agnieszka Radwanska made an excellent start in her current season as she (ranked 14th in this event) made it into the last eight at Australian Open before losing to the eventual champion Kim Clijsters. Her form
was dwindling at the start of the season and the best she went was at Stuttgart where the Pole made a semi-final berth.
22-year-old continued improving her game and succeeded in Carlsbad on August. She lifted her maiden WTA title of the season after upsetting top seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva. Radwanska continued surprising everyone as she made
into the last four at Toronto and bagged her second title of the season at Tokyo next month. Her spark stayed lit in the next tournament she played as the Pole kept firing massive forehands and backhands from her arsenal of skills to be crowned at Beijing
WTA Premier event.
This eleven match winning streak jumped her into top ten in the Sony Ericsson WTA rankings. She lost the opener at Moscow but qualified for the first time at the WTA Championships.
She declared after qualifying, "It's the Top 8 players in the world, the best eight players this year. I don't think it really matters who you play here. I was the last one to get in here so I'm just going to enjoy myself and try
to play my best tennis, like in Asia."
The Pole lost to the World number one Caroline Wozniacki in her opening round robin match in Istanbul. Despite stunning Russian Vera Zvonareva in her second match, the Pole was outclassed by the third seed, Czech Petra Kvitova
and eventually ended her run at the Championship.
Second Seed Maria Sharapova of Russia
A former world number one re-created her 2005 magic this season as she bagged two title and had an amazing 43-14 win – loss record. The Russian started the season ranked 18th in the rankings and after an impressive season,
she reached to world number two in late September.
She made semi-final berths at Indian Wells and French Open, and made title-round appearances at Miami and Wimbledon. Mustering her season further, Sharapova bagged titles at Rome (defeating Australian Samantha Stosur) and Cincinnati
WTA Premier (battling past Jelena Jankovic) and confidently entered at the WTA Championships for the fifth time.
The 2004 titlist said after qualifying for the WTA finals, "I think we all know what to expect going into the groups. It's the Top 8 girls of the year. You're going to get a tough group either way and tough opponents. It's just
a matter of being ready from the first match on."
However, the 24-year-old Russian showed dismal performance in Istanbul and after losing to fifth seeded Chinese Li Na and seventh seeded Aussie Samantha Stosur, she pulled out from the event. In addition to this, she failed to
pocket even a single set. As a result, Sharapova fell two spots in the WTA rankings and is currently standing at the 4th rank.
Tags: