Just two winners in the first set, contrasted with 18 unforced errors, ensured that Serena Williams found herself trailing Dominika Cibulkova 2-6 and her inability to pull herself together made her lose four more games to winning just one in the second set. But from 2-6 1-4, Serena's internal dialogue got her mental control back, which naturally translated into great play, and she won 11 of the last 13 games of the fourth-round match at the Sony Tennis Open in Miami. Final score: 2-6 6-4 6-2.

Serena is famous for many things, but her ability to swing into higher gear definitely tops the list. Serena is the only player to have won three Grand Slam titles while saving match points on the way. Moreover, she is 21-20 since 2009 when losing the first set.

I’ve been down worse. It’s nothing new. Just keep fighting. I never give up. Doesn’t matter whether it’s in life or on the tennis court, I keep fighting.

As for Cibulkova, in the same round of the same tournament last year she also faced a world No.1 player, then it was Victoria Azarenka, and Cibulkova also had a good initial lead, 6-1 5-2, before falling to the Belarusian 1-6 7-6(7) 7-5 in the absolute thriller. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Agnieszka Radwanska capped perfect two weeks with a 6-0 6-0 thrashing of Dominika Cibulkova in the final of the Apia International Sydney. The Slovakian, always hot or cold, finished the wonderful week that featured victories over Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and seeds No.2 and No.3 Angelique Kerber and Sara Errani with an embarrassing double-bagel loss to the in-form top seed. The last time we had a 6-0 6-0 score in a WTA final was more than six years ago, at the 2006 Quebec City, when Marion Bartoli defeated Olga Puchkova.

The Sydney final started with Radwanska’s double fault and ended with Cibulkova’s double fault. Cibulkova couldn’t keep a ball in court and recorded a 15-36 winners-unforced errors differential to Radwanska’s 7-8.

Radwanska has now taken 18 straight sets, which include titles in Auckland and Sydney, and extended her record to 4-0 in WTA finals where she was the top seed. Moreover, Radwanska has now won eight of her last nine finals at non-majors. A big thank you to Chris Skelton and his amazing Twitter account for these unique stats!

En route to her 12th career title, Radwanska defeated Kimiko Date-Krumm in the second round, Roberta Vinci in the quarterfinals, fourth seed Li Na in the semis and rounded off the tournament by demolishing Cibulkova. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Agnieszka Radwanska and Li Na both entered the Premier-level Sydney semifinal with perfect win-loss records this season, owing to their title runs in Auckland (Radwanska) and inaugural Shenzhen (Li), but the higher-ranked Pole spoiled Li's undefeated run, even though it was Li who had led their head-to-head 5-3, including 3-1 last season.

Li battled hard in her last night's match against qualifier Madison Keys and today she saved seven match points before finally succumbing to tiredness and the top-seeded Radwanska, who was leading the encounter throughout.

On a better note for Li, the WTA has announced that the big Tokyo tournament that will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year will be replaced by an event in Li's hometown of Wuhan in China in 2014. The tournament will have the prize money of about $2 million.

The other semifinal was between Dominika Cibulkova and second seed Angelique Kerber and Cibulkova prevailed 6-2 4-6 6-3. Even though Cibulkova entered the match with a 2-0 record against Kerber, both those victories happened before Kerber made it big in the tennis world and Kerber was favored for appearance in the Sydney final.

Radwanska has now won eight matches in a row and is 3-0 against Cibulkova, but the peers haven't faced each other in years, precisely, since 2008! (photos: Ralf Reinecke)

Top four seeds were the only seeds in the Apia International Sydney quarterfinals and three of them advanced to the semis – No.1 Agnieszka Radwanska, No.2 Angelique Kerber and No.4 Li Na, while No.3 Sara Errani got eliminated in a dominant fashion.

The world No.4 Agnieszka Radwanska extended her win-loss record this season to 7-0 by rallying from 3-1 down in the second set to battle past Roberta Vinci 6-4 7-5. It was a nice revenge for Radwanska for the loss in their last meeting which saw Roberta Vinci reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the 2012 US Open. In the other quarterfinal played during the day session, Dominika Cibulkova continued her running through the draw, adding the sixteenth to her fifteenth Top 10 win, that happened in the first round against Petra Kvitova, by dominating Sara Errani 6-2 6-1. Read more »

Dominika Cibulkova is currently in Sydney, playing the Premier-level Australian Open warm-up, and she's doing great – after beating Petra Kvitova 6-1 6-1 in the first round, she defeated Ekaterina Makarova, and the progression hasn't stopped, as the Slovakian eliminated third seed Sara Errani 6-2 6-1 hours ago in the quarterfinals. But that's not all we'll remember Cibulkova's Apia International Sydney for. In an interview during the tournament, the 23-year-old spontaneously revealed that she's an engaged woman.

Apia International Sydney: Meanwhile, is that an engagement ring on your finger?

Dominika Cibulkova: Yeah yeah, I’m engaged. We have [been engaged] together for a year, but I always just call him my boyfriend, not fiance. We are just waiting, as I would like to have a marriage in summer back home, but there is just no time while I’m playing tennis so we are in no rush to be married.

In case you didn't know, Cibulkova has been dating Miso Navara. Here you can see many photos of the couple. Cibulkova's most notable past boyfriends were ATP players Gael Monfils and Jurgen Melzer, who got married to fellow tennis player Iveta Benesova in September 2012. (source: The Slice, photo: © Neal Trousdale)