Agnieszka Radwanska beats Garbine Murguza, progresses to WTA Championships finals
Polish ace Agnieszka Radwanska took a three-set victory over 2nd seeded Garbine Muguruza of Spain at the first semi-final of the WTA Championships in Singapore today, winning 6-7, 6-3, 7-5.
The 5th seed, who came into today’s match on the back of two losses at the round robin stage, did not appear to let those faze her as she put up a convincing battle against the higher-ranked Spaniard.
Muguruza took the first set after a tense, long battle that saw proceedings go to a tiebreaker, which the Spanish ace would eventually take.
Radwanska earlier suffered straight sets losses to Maria Sharapova and US Open winner Flavia Pennetta in the round robin stages, managing however to end the stage with her own straight sets defeat of tournament top seed Simona Halep.
Halep was herself eliminated from the tournament following that loss, which came after she suffered a similar loss to Sharapova.
Muguruza hit 8 winners to Radwanska’s 5, with the Pole committing 4 double faults to the Spaniard’s 2.
After her firs set loss, Radwanska came back all guns blazing to go a double break up to Muguruza in the second set, eventually sealing it 6-3. The third set began with Radwanska continuing to dominate, leading 4-1 in the third set. Muguruza, however, refused to back down, narrowing her opponent’s lead to 3-4, following which she equalised the set to return from a losing position.
Although a heavily-bandaged Radwanska walked with a pronounced limp and looked to be in visible pain at the match, she fought valiantly, with a second match point presenting itself as a winning opportunity. She closed out the final set 7-5 to take victory.
Radwanska will play the winner of the second semi-final, between Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova, to be held later this evening.