Urszula Radwanska defeats Riko Sawayanagi in opening qualies – Toray Pan Pacific Open 2011
Qualifying third seed, Pole Urszula Radwanska dumped Japanese wild card enterer Riko Sawayanagi in straight sets at her home soil on Friday. She registered a 6-4, 6-4 victory over the Japanese to advance into the final round of
the qualifiers at the Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis 2011, a WTA Premier 5 event held on the outdoor hard courts in Tokyo, Japan.
The Pole outmuscled Sawayanagi in straight sets in one hour and thirty-eight minutes and inched towards the main draw of the $2,000,000 event.
Radwanska confidently entered Ariake Coliseum and held her opening serve through her exquisite forehands. She saved two out of three breakpoints faced but capitalised on half of the four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage
to win the opener with a 6-4 victory. Furthermore, the Pole clobbered a similar first serve share of 63 percent and registered a 6-4 win.
The beaming Pole was distracted on her way into the final set. She gifted away her serve twice and produced a lower first serve share of 60 percent as compared to Japanese’s 75 percent. However, Radwanska roared back by converting
three out of six breakpoint chances to her advantage to pocket the set with a similar 6-4 score line.
Next challenge for the Pole is the sixteenth seeded local star Rika Fujiwara who also trashed a wild card enterer Natsumi Hamamura in straight sets to set-up this clash.
Seventh seeded Japanese Yurika Sema faced a different fat. She displayed dismal performance against American Raquel Kops-Jones. After losing her serve six times, the Japanese exited from the Ariake Coliseum with a 1-6, 3-6 defeat
in sixty-four minutes.
Regardless of saving two out of four breakpoints and standing on a higher rank in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, Sema failed to convert the only breakpoint chance she got in the opening set to suffer a 1-6 loss.
She raised the level of her game in the final set and despite capitalising on both breakpoint chances to her advantage, the Japanese failed to fend off the four breakpoints came across and eventually suffered a 3-6 defeat.
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