Agnieszka Radwanska got her long awaited first round match to end at the US Open Wednesday. The tenth seeded Polish star held off the skills of Petra Martic to win 6-4, 7-6(3) on Court Five at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center.
The two haven’t met in WTA competition in the last six years making it an easy chance for the 11th seed to handle her opening round. The Polish star did well in their last two meeting holding her to seven games or less. Despite being unable to defend her title in New Haven last week, the 28 year old had her eyes set on reaching far beyond her personal best of the fourth round; a spot she’s been to five times prior. The Czech made her fifth appearance into the draw making the draw without fighting her way through qualifications. The 26 year old knew that a lot of work would need to be done to pull off an upset.
She began with a surprising break on the tenth seed getting her mark in the match right away. Radwanska put herself in position for a break of the Croatian but had to get it done on the break of deuce. She consolidated with a hold in the third allowing Martic a single point while building on her offense to be the dominant one. The Croatian kept the pace with the Polish star through four games using her forehand to keep the first serve returns strong.
By the sixth, it turned back in favor of the world number ten who went on a tear to capture the hold and consolidate a break from Martic. She made the seventh game look easy as Martic’s unforced errors gave Radwanska a chance to hit the ace and win her serve to love. The Croatian was on notice as the set was coming close to being in the hands of Radwanska. She tried holding off the Polish player but went to deuce handing her opponent a chance to earn the break set point.
She saved a set point and held Radwanska off to keep on playing. Martic got another one playing near the net at times to get ahead on the scoreboard. A moment came in the game where a break point chance came close where she easily lobbed one over the net to sit a game down of Radwanska and a chance to force the set deeper. It wasn’t meant to be as her game was taken for one with the tenth seed reaching three set points making Martic nervous. She broke with a double fault ending the set in 43 minutes. Both had even first serve points won but their second serves were underwhelming.
Radwanska made the second set look better as she found little trouble holding her serve against Martic. She created a break in the fourth that gave her a massive 3-1 lead and the ball back to keep her serve together. She made it three in a row for herself as Martic had little to answer on the return side of things. She ended Radwanska’s winning streak with a service hold but not enough to show against the tenth seed. She kept her step to serve out a fifth win and put Martic on the edge of defeat in the match.
She recovered a shaky start with serious aggression that had her ball placement beating Radwanska to avoid going down just yet. The problem came when Radwanska served for it in the ninth having yet to drop in the second. Martic played desperately showing tremendous response on the returns. A placement near the net by Radwanska helped her level the score but it was still a tough fight. Radwanska forced deuce to save her serve but she wasn’t safe with Martic firing good returns to stay in it. On four break attempts, Martic got the break point to stay alive and fight for the huge chance of taking Radwanska into extra games. Martic took her that exact path as they played the next two splitting them to force the tiebreaker. Radwanska enabled herself to play a position that she would be comfortable with. The nerves of the Croatian came to fruition that allowed the tenth seed to reach three match points and end her first round in 1 hour and 33 minutes.
Radwanska finished with an average first serve percentage and held her unforced errors to less than a dozen in the match. Martic had far too many and a second serve that couldn’t deal with the Polish star’s fight for victory. She’ll prepare for her second round match against Yulia Putintseva on Thursday.
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