Muguruza stops Aga Radwanska, Halep leaves with GI illness

4
Wilson Blade 9

Agnieszka RadwanskaWhile our photographer Jimmie48 is busy covering the Hobart International, enjoying the tournament’s beautiful setting, there are plenty of things going on elsewhere in Australia as well. The $731,000 Apia International Sydney lost its top seed Simona Halep to illness, while third seed Agnieszka Radwanska fell in a thrilling second-round encounter, as well as home favorite Samantha Stosur.

This is a tricky week for tournaments, since players are very cautious to save themselves for the upcoming Australian Open. After Monday’s withdrawal of fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki due to a wrist injury, Sydney said goodbye to its top seed, Simona Halep, who cited gastrointestinal illness and was replaced by lucky loser Nicole Gibbs.

Just hours after escorting the 2015 Shenzhen champion Halep, the Premier-level event lost its third seed Agnieszka Radwanska, but in a nail-biting battle with WTA’s rising star Garbine Muguruza. After dropping the first set, the 24th-ranked Muguruza went 4-1 up in the second set, and even though the recent Hopman Cup champion Radwanska managed to level, Muguruza prevailed in the tiebreak and then broke the Pole’s serve three times in the decider to win the match 3-6 7-6(4) 6-2.

BTW, I’m eagerly awaiting to see whether Radwanska will wear the dramatic black lace Lotto dress that we’ve seen as the brand’s design for 2015. So far this year she’s been wearing white and navy versions of the Lotto Autumn Nixia Dress.

Sixth seed Ekaterina Makarova also fell in the second round on Tuesday, 4-6 6-1 6-4 to Carla Suarez Navarro, while Aussie Sam Stosur, who had won no matches in Brisbane, bowed out of Sydney in the second round, losing to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 7-6(1) 6-2. Second seed Petra Kvitova was successful today, beating Peng Shuai 6-1 7-5.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Garbiñe is really playing well. She can really fight with the big names. She’s definitely a future top 10 player. Aga definitely feels the pressure to perform better at WTA Tour considering she hired a new “supercoach” in the form of Martina Navratilova. I think she will go far at Slams this year but she lacks that specific weapon that can take her to Grand Slam glory. She really does well in the net with her magical and ninja moves in the court but that is not enough to match Serena’s booming serve or Maria’s heavy groundstrokes or even Ana’s big forehand.

  2. Emman Damian, women’s tennis is so unpredictable and we’ve had some very unexpected GS champions like Francesca Schiavone for example. Aga definitely has a chance!

  3. Emman Damian, it’s still a long shot for her, but it’s not impossible. We have new GS champions all the time, so why wouldn’t Aga be one of them.

  4. Yeah unlike in Men’s tour that we have those household names like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. I hope that WTA will have that soon. It feels like Serena takes it all but yeah, I hope Aga can win one too soon.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here