Urszula Radwanska edges past Anastasia Rodionova into 2nd round – WANLIMA Women’s Open 2011
Pole Urszula Radwanska warded off early resistance to register a 7-6(5), 6-4 victory over the Aussie Anastasia Rodionova to reach the second round of the Wanlima Guangzhou International Women’s Open 2011, a WTA hard court event
held in Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China, on Monday.
20-year-old Pole put up a solid display of tennis to triumph over Rodionova in a rain delayed match in two hours and thirty-six minutes. She maintained her winning streak and extended lead in the head-to-head series by 2-0 against
the 29-year-old Aussie.
Ranked 105th in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, Radwanska took the first blood to take a strong position in the match at 2-1. Regardless of losing her serve in the sixth game, she exchanged two breaks in the
last four games to drag the set to a tie-breaker. However, the Pole dominated in it to clinch the opener with a 7-6(5) score line.
Radwanska clobbered a similar first serve share of 66 percent and registered a convincing 52 percent win on it. Although she saved four out of seven breakpoints faced, the Pole converted three out of four breakpoint chances to
her advantage to take the set to a tie-breaker.
Ahaus native, Radwanska raised the bar of her game in the final set and after breaking Aussie’s serve twice, she went 4-1 up. She lost her concentration after wards and lower the lead but roared back in the eighth game to make
the score line 5-3. Despite losing her edge in the ninth game, the Pole broke her rival’s serve again in the last game to seal the set by winning six games to four.
She produced a poor first serve share of 56 percent as opposed to Rodionova’s 80 percent but earned a plausible 53 percent win on it. Radwanska failed to save all three breakpoints saved but up for it after cashing in on half of
the eight breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
Up next for the Pole is the winner of the match between the third seed, Russian Ksenia Pervak and Taiwanese Yung-jan Chan. Radwanska needs to improve her game to face a seed and to overpower it.
Tags: