Yesterday world No.5 Agnieszka Radwanska won two matches in straight sets and advanced to the quarterfinals of the BMW Malaysian Open, which was only days after her title run in Dubai, but it seems that too much play did put a pressure on the Pole's body and she handed a walkover to her quarterfinal opponent, Hsieh Su-Wei. The reason behind the top seed's withdrawal is a right elbow injury. (photo: Johan Rivera)

Agnieszka Radwanska, enjoying her career-high No.5 ranking earned over the weekend by clinching the Dubai trophy, rushed to Kuala Lumpur to play the BMW Malaysian Open, but rain interfered so much that the Pole finished her first round match two days later than the encounter was scheduled, and right afterwards she played and won her second round.

The 22-year-old Radwanska beat Akgul Amanmuradova 6-2 6-4 on Thursday, while the match started on Wednesday and was supposed to start on Tuesday. Later on Thursday the top-seeded Pole met Karolina Pliskova and defeated her as well, 6-4 6-4.

In the quarterfinals of the $220,000 Malaysian Open Radwanska's opponent will be Taiwanese qualifier Su-Wei Hsieh.

Defending champion at the tournament was seventh-seeded Jelena Dokic, but she lost today, in the second round to Olivia Rogowska 3-6 6-4 7-6(2). (photo: Johan Rivera)

After her fourth tournament of 2012, Agnieszka Radwanska has remained undefeated this year by any other player except for world No.1 Victoria Azarenka, having eliminated Julia Goerges in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title. The Dubai title is Radwanska's eighth and will move her to career-best ranking of No.5.

In both sets Radwanska was the first to take a lead, 4-2 in the first set and 4-1 in the second, and even though on both occasions Goerges managed to come close, it was Radwanska's final say and she finished the match 7-5 6-4 in one hour and 44 minutes.

En route to the Premier-level trophy, the fifth-seeded Radwanska survived qualifier Aleskandra Wozniak in the first round, for her 300th career win, then she beat Shahar Peer, ninth seed Sabine Lisicki, eighth seed Jelena Jankovic, and finally Goerges, who sent home the recent world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki in the semis. (photo: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)

Agnieszka Radwanska and Jelena Jankovic opened the semifinal schedule of the day in Dubai. Tied at 1-1 in sets, 6-2 2-6 more precisely, the second set won by eighth-seeded Jankovic, Radwanska refocused on her play and made a crucial break in the second game of the deciding set. The fifth-seeded Pole held all the three service games in the 28-minute last set without losing a point and won 6-2 2-6 6-0.

Julia Goerges will be Radwanska's opponent in the final, after her well-earned 7-6(3) 7-5 victory over defending champion and third seed Caroline Wozniacki, her third straight win over the Dane. The unseeded Goerges, debutante in Dubai, survived Wozniacki's long rallies, as the Dane's unforced errors piled up. Goerges won the first set in a tiebreak, even though she could have closed it out earlier, with a set point at 5-3. In the second set she came back from 4-2 down.

Radwanska and Goerges will play for the Premier Dubai title, the $446,778 that it brings, but also for their WTA rankings breakthroughs. The title would take Radwanska to her Top 5 debut, while Goerges would crack Top 15 for the first time.

It was Radwanska who comfortably won the one and only previous meeting with Goerges, 6-1 6-1 this year in the fourth round of the Australian Open. Also, let's mention the interesting fact that Radwanska's 2012 win-loss record is 14-3 and all the three losses came at the hands of current world No.1 Victoria Azarenka, whom Radwanska criticized for gamesmanship. (via WTA Tour, photos: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus, © Neal Trousdale)

In an interview after her Dubai quarterfinal win, Agnieszka Radwanska made it public that she "lost a lot of respect" for world No.1 Victoria Azarenka, because the Belarusian allegedly exaggerated her ankle injury pain during her semifinal victory in Doha. Radwanska spoke her mind when asked about the cold handshake in her Doha loss to Azarenka, in which Azarenka sprained her ankle in the second set and eventually won, despite limping and looking on the verge of retirement.

I think after this match (in Doha) [I] just lost a lot of respect. If you do this in the match, if anyone didn’t see the match, I think it’s just a quick look on YouTube and you’ll know what was going on. I was angry because I don’t think this is the great image for the women’s tennis, what was going on there.

Here's the YouTube video. The handshake is in the last minute of the clip.

(via Beyond the Baseline)