Agnieszka Radwanska struggled to get into pace at the Rogers Cup Thursday. Her match against Caroline Wozniacki wasn’t the way she wanted to go about it losing in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 on Centre Court at the Aviva Tennis Centre. It was the 11th win for the Dane against her best friend and a spot in the quarterfinals.
Two good friends who train with one another on the courts were at odds in their 17th meeting. The Dane holds the series lead winning three of five in the last two seasons. Both did well coming off the transition from grass to clay to hard courts while the other got married over the summer. The newlywed Polish star put together two big wins against Coco Vandeweghe and Timea Babos while Wozniacki took care of Ekaterina Alexandrova in straight sets. With the two on another collision course, a spot in the quarterfinals would be very lucrative.
Both held serve with Radwanska making her a service to love on Wozniacki. To add pressure, the world number ten picked up a break on her friend winning eight consecutive points. It was an early push for the tenth seed as she put Wozniacki on notice who took the thought to mind and cleaned up the fourth game. The former number one rallied to win on the break and held to consolidate and take the lead after five.
Wozniacki was in control of the set reaching a 5-2 hold on Radwanska putting her opponent in trouble on serve. She struggled to keep hold of her serve against the Dane but managed to prevent her from forcing deuce. The inevitable arrived in the ninth with Wozniacki very much destined to take Radwanska out of the running in the set to cap her way to leading the match after 37 minutes. Despite having twice as many unforced errors than her opponent, the maintaining of the first serve was her path to taking control in the late stages.
She built up the offense to attack Radwanska on her opening serve in the second forcing her into a draw. The two played three breaks before the Dane secured the break. Radwanska tried to bring some aggression into her answers against the Wozniacki serve but after several breaks on deuce, she couldn’t get on the board.
Wozniacki kept Radwanska down in her game as she aimed for the open courts pacing her opponent left and right that continued her growing winning streak. It was quickly 4-0 to the point of confidence riding high in the body of the Dane while the tenth seed all but threw in the towel. The sixth seed was a game away from sweeping Radwanska who anticipated her struggles coming to an end.
Wozniacki reached three match points until all her forehand shots fell out or into the net giving the Polish star a chance at avoiding the bagel. After three breaks and saving five overall, Radwanska delayed the match from ending with fight being seen for the first time in the set. it all disappeared as Wozniacki fought against the serve of her friend reaching the triple break bringing an end to the 1 hour and 18 minute match. Both ended the day with 19 unforced errors each but the difference was the first serve where Radwanska made just under 50 percent of points while Wozniacki got 70 percent of her first serve points.
“It’s always unfortunate to play your good friend at such an early round but at the same its part of the game and there’s no hard feelings so dinner’s on me tonight,” Wozniacki said during her on court interview.”
The road to another final for Wozniacki gets harder as she faces newly ranked number one star Karolina Pliskova on Friday. “I definitely have to return better against her than I did today,” she said when asked about her next battle. “But I just have to go in there and play aggressive.”
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