Agnieszka Radwanska got out of another jam at the Wuhan Open Tuesday. The ninth seed nearly avoided going the distance with Julia Goerges but somehow held on to a straight sets win 7-5, 7-5 on Centre Court at the Wuhan Optical Valley Tennis Centre.
The German pulled off a stunning defeat of Radwanska in the first round at Cincinnati this season giving her plenty of leverage in the series to settle the score in China. The 28-year-old had a tough outing against Daria Gavrilova Monday but the momentum she put together for a second-round match gives her confidence of upsetting the world number 13. The Polish star held off Magdalena Rybarikova in straight sets but the adversity was on court as well as her struggles on the return.
She started off well with her opening serve to hold off Goerges with perfect ground strokes. The return game was challenged by the German who matched her opponent’s skills but as Radwanska got the ball back, her offense took another step. She made a push to gain the break from the German but a save of points on deuce allowed her to regain control and keep even on the scoreboard.
They remained that way going deep into the set where Radwanska took force in the 11th to gain the leverage capable of landing herself the set. The Polish star fired away in the 12th to cap the first set in 52 minutes with hopes of ending the match sooner rather than later. The returns were again dismal for the ninth seed landing 3 of 15 on the first serve and less than 50 percent on the second. The German remained a forceful opponent showing her strengths going forward.
They began the second set very much the same way staying neck and neck with each other. Despite times of being broken, the players fought with everything they had with the hot conditions. Radwanska was first to reach the point of playing for the match but the serve of Goerges saved the break leading the two to play out the extra frames.
In a show of response, Radwanska blasted out another serve to love against Goerges hoping to shut her down in the following game. It took a lot of effort on her part to be at the right spot at the right time to reach three match points with Goerges on the edge of defeat. The German began to slowly turn around the leverage and dictate the pace of the rallies to recover two points but no further as a slicer landed wide ending 1 hour and 55 minutes.
Despite getting through once more by the skin of her teeth, the 28 year old managed to continue her way through the tournament where her match up Wednesday would be against Australia’s Ashleigh Barty.
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