The Quarterfinals were set with one big name missing at the Apia Sydney International Tuesday. World number one Angelique Kerber showed troubles again on court that led her to take an early exit at the Sydney Olympic Tennis Park losing to Daria Kasatkina 7-6(5), 6-2 at Ken Rosewall Arena. Second seeded Agnieszka Radwanska along with tenth seed Caroline Wozniacki and sixth seeded Johanna Konta advanced on with wins in straight sets.
Having an easy transition into the round of eight was the Australian born Konta who had a match against fellow countrywoman Daria Gavrilova. The Aussie turned Brit handled the former Russian citizen well in the opening set before taking the match from her in a 6-1, 6-3 straight sets win. It took her 80 minutes to get the win despite having a lower serve percentage than her opponent.
On who wished she fared better was the current top ranked player in the world who showed clear troubles of defense in yet another tournament. The German superstar took on a young 19 year old who used her time on court to school Kerber. She pushed her to a tiebreaker in the opening set where the young Russian out did her in a 7-5 score. Kasatkina took that momentum to produce a 6-2 win in the second set pulling off a spectacular upset in 92 minutes.
The shakeup in the tournament had Wozniacki and Radwanska slightly worried about their upcoming matches, but both handled their ends of the game. The former number one Dane made a statement against Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva shutting her down in the opening set to win 6-0. It took very little time to achieve the opening set but she didn’t expect to create concerns in her game.
Wozniacki began to show signs of struggle on the second serve that saw her commit two double faults as well as trouble on the returns. She had to make a serious comeback to hang on to a straight set win that involved her playing the set to its limits. With some timely regrouping, Wozniacki managed to play defense and win the second set 7-5 to win in 1 hour and 18 minutes.
One player who wished to have an early end to her match was the Polish star who came off a failed defense of her title at Shenzhen. The second seed at Sydney took on American Christina McHale who has never been able to defeat Radwanska in their last four meets. She threatened early on in the first set pushing the world number three to a tiebreaker. Radwanska put her best to the fire and got out of danger holding McHale to a single point.
The second seed went on to handle the remainder of the match gaining easy points of McHale who had four double faults on serve as well as her dismal second serve where she scored on two of ten shots. With that and struggles on the return, Radwanska had an easier time to getting the job done in just under two hours. She might find herself having an easier time in the quarterfinals facing Chinese qualifier Ying-Ying Duan on Wednesday.
Wozniacki would have to go against Barbora Strycova for a seventh meeting while the last Aussie in the tournament would facing Kasatkina in the first time showdown.
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