Agnieszka Radwanska gave up very little in her match at the Pan Pacific Open Friday. The defending champion eased through to the semifinals defeating Monica Puig 6-2, 6-3 at Ariake Coliseum on the grounds of Ariake Tennis Forest in Tokyo. The number four seed had eight aces on the night and won 73 percent of service points.
It was the Olympic gold medalist hunting for further success with just a few more tournaments left in the season. The soon to be 23-year-old Puerto Rican found herself in the quarterfinal in Japan facing a formidable opponent in Radwanska. The world number four defeated Puig at the Australian Open in January and would look for another win to get closer to becoming a repeat champion.
Radwanska found holding her opening serve to be a little tricky with Puig responding well taking a strong stance in the middle of the court. She was able to match a win in the second hoping to avoid another on her next try. The world number four consolidated her hold by breaking Puig in the third before gaining a 3-1 lead on a second consecutive service hold. The Puerto Rican had to respond and did it with a 40-0 jump before hesitating on game point. Though she gave up a couple of points, Puig reeled in the win to sit a game down.
Radwanska regained her two game margin and added another on the break to sit 5-2 with the ball in her possession to go for the match. During the break, Puig and coach Juan Todero took in a deep conversation on what she needed to do to prevent the set from closing. The strategy never fully got into play as Radwanska easily put down the hammer to etch her name into the books for the set that took 29 minutes to complete. She scored on 11 of 14 of her first serve shots and was flawless in the second. The Pole smashed half her shots on serve which was just better than Puig who managed just 3 of 14.
The number two seed kept her grip of control and pushed her winning streak to five looking to dominate further on. She nearly had a flawless game but watched Puig make a comeback. It was quickly quenched by Radwanska who captured game point on serve taking a 2-0 stance. Efforts from the 22-year-old were apparent on-court of her need to break the winning streak of her strong adversary.
She managed to force deuce on her serve capturing the victory on a long rally that saw the players putting plenty of power on their shots. Radwanska tried to end it with a lob near the net but the young Puerto Rican got to it making the volleys important to keep in. It came to an end after one of Radwanska’s return didn’t stay inside giving her the win ending the six-game winning streak.
She added another moment of hard work against the serve of Radwanska. She played through five breaks where it was a double fault on the count of the Pole who gave her a second straight victory and some life with the score tied. Radwanska put her troubles to an end pushing to a 40-0 score before completing the love service.
She was back to her winning ways after the sixth gaining a two-game lead putting her on the path to a match win. Puig answered in the seventh smashing the volleys from Radwanska to insure her win of the game. The defending champion held her end of things in the eighth that took a toll on Puig. Her unforced errors increased quickly in the ninth handing Radwanska ease to the match point. She took three break points and won it on a ball shot long from the Puerto Rican ending the match in 1 hour and 16 minutes.
“I played my best tennis today serving the ball well and hitting well,” Radwanska said during her on-court interview. “I could do everything today I’m just really glad to have done well.” She’ll expect the best from herself as she’ll take on the winner between Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki and fellow Polish player Magda Linette on Saturday.
Photo by: Toshifumi Kitamura/Getty Images
Photo by: Toshifumi Kitamura/Getty Images
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