Radwanska stands firm to reach Singapore semis
Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska stayed patient in the face of a barrage of big serving to advance to the last four of the WTA Finals in Singapore for the third time in a row with a 7-5 6-3 victory over Karolina Pliskova on Friday.
The defending champion came into the contest with a 6-0 record against the powerful Czech and maintained her dominance over last month’s losing US Open finalist to set up a mouth-watering semifinal against world No.1 Angelique Kerber.
Earlier in the day, Garbine Muguruza ended her campaign with a 3-6 6-0 6-1 consolation victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova, who still emerged as the White Group winner and will face Dominika Cibulkova in the other semifinal on Saturday.
After compiling identical 1-1 records in their first two round-robin matches, both losing to Kuznetsova but beating Muguruza, Friday’s contest was a winner-takes-all affair and Radwanska kept her composure on the key points to advance.
“It was a very tight match and I was happy I could do my best at the important moments,” said world No.3 Radwanska, who has won 14 sets without reply against Pliskova.
“You just wait and pray that her first serve isn’t going to be in and take you chances on the second serve. She’s one of the best servers on the tour so I knew it was going to be tough.”
Pliskova started strongly, racing through her service games with ease and putting pressure on Radwanska, who was broken in the fifth game to fall 3-2 behind.