Radwanska Advances in New York, Faces Vandeweghe Next
FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. – After six straight majors without reaching at least a quarterfinal, tenth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska moved one step closer to getting back to the second week of a major. The Pole held off a feisty Yulia Putintseva 7-5, 6-2 in one hour and 44 minutes on Thursday evening to advance to the Round of 32 of the US Open Tennis Championships in New York.
The opening set was full of service breaks, five to be exact.
Putintseva had the opportunity to send the opening set to a tiebreaker, but Radwanska—who has been playing more aggressive tennis this summer—managed to pull off a late service break to win the opening set 7-5.
“Definitely that first set was the key – it was a really tough and long set, but I think I just did a couple of good shots in important moments,” said Radwanska, the former No. 2 player in the world.
Putintseva showed tons of frustration throughout the entire second set, which Radwanska easily won 6-2.
Both players hit almost the same amount of errors – Radwanska with 28 and Putintseva with 27. But, it was the Polish star’s six service breaks compared to just three by the Kazakh that ultimately separated the two in the match.
Radwanska also had fewer unforced errors with 16 compared to 27 by Putintseva, most of which were hit during the second set.
Next up for Radwanska is a third round meeting with No. 20 seeded American Coco Vandeweghe, who easily defeated Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur.
Radwanska, who has reached—but never advanced past—the Round of 16 in Flushing Meadows five times previously, beat Vandeweghe in straight sets just a couple weeks ago in Toronto.
“We just played a few ago, so obviously we know each other,” Radwanska said during her post-match press conference. “I can think about what I have to do to have the same result as Toronto.”
Radwanska is the only Polish player left in the women’s draw.
