Radwanska crushes Kvitova to ease into final
>> NEW HAVEN: Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska put on a dominant performance against double defending champion Petra Kvitova to ease into the final of the Connecticut Open with a 6-1, 6-1 triumph on Friday.
Kvitova, who also won the event in 2012, was looking to join Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki as four-time winners of the tournament but the sixth-seeded Czech was completely overwhelmed by the Polish world No.4.
The two-time Wimbledon champion committed 17 unforced errors in the first set and never got into the match, which was completed in 77 minutes.
The fast-starting Radwanska won the first five games of the match and then reeled off the opening four of the second set to stay in control throughout.
The Pole advances to face Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who overcame Johanna Larsson 6-4, 6-2 to reach the final.
Larsson enjoyed an improbable run in the tournament after reaching the main draw when other players withdrew, the Swede upsetting Italy’s Roberta Vinci in the quarter-finals before coming up short against the 21-year-old Svitolina.
The 10th-seeded Svitolina shocked Serena Williams on her way to the quarter-finals at the Rio Olympics and a victory in this warm-up event for next week’s US Open would be her second of the year after she triumphed in Malaysia in May.
ALL-SPANISH SHOWDOWN
Roberto Bautista Agut advanced to the Winston-Salem Open final, beating Viktor Troicki 7-5, 6-7 (2/7), 6-2 on Friday.
The second-seeded Agut will face fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta, a 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) winner over Australia’s John Millman in the second semi-final.
The 28-year-old Agut reached the quarter-finals at the Rio Olympics and joined the field in Winston-Salem as a late wild-card entry after he lost in the first round last week in Cincinnati. He moved one win from his fifth career title and his third this year.
Agut is ranked 17th and seeded 15th in the US Open, which begins tomorrow in New York.
The ninth-seeded Troicki, a 30-year-old from Serbia, is 35th in the ATP rankings.
The 16th-seeded Carreno Busta is the world’s 49th-ranked player and has yet to lose a set in the tournament. He reached his third final of the year by beating Millman, who knocked out top-seeded Richard Gasquet in the quarter-finals.