Seeds cruise through in Linz

TAGS:

 

By: Reuters

Third seed Agnieszka Radwanska and seventh seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy both claimed straight-set victories at the Linz Open.
 
Poland's Radwanska (pictutred) reached the quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, and Pennetta was even more decisive in beating Hungary's Agnes Szavay 6-1 6-2 to reach the second round.
 
Radwanska took advantage of her error-prone opponent, who knew what she had to do but had difficulty in executing.
 
A double-fault gave Radwanska a break in the first game, and she broke again to love to lead 5-2 before serving out the set.
 
Radwanska had the opportunity to dominate the second set too, holding points for a 4-0 lead. Instead, Kanepi broke, and the next two games also went against serve to leave Radwanska leading 4-2.
 
Although the final games were more of a struggle than in the first set, Radwanska held on to claim victory.
 
"I started well and she made some mistakes and it was hard for her to come back so the first set was easy for me," said Radwanska.
 
"In the second set she was playing up and down. I didn't know what to expect. I had so many chances on my serve that I lost, and when she was serving I lost so many break points."
 
Pennetta, who lost to Venus Williams in the Zurich Open final on Sunday, admitted that although she had an easy victory she was beginning to feel tired because of a long doubles match the previous evening.
 
After breaking three times to take the first set she fell behind 0-40 in her first two service games of the second. On the first occasion she recovered to hold serve and then broke Szavay to love, but she was broken the second time.
 
With Szavay making a succession of errors, Pennetta was able to break again to lead 3-1, and she closed out the match with a further break at 5-2.
 
"I played very consistent in the beginning and then in the second set I was beginning to feel a little bit tired," said Pennetta.


 

Go Back