Agnieszka Radwanska tamed Venus Williams 6-4, 6-2 to win the Rogers Cup in Montreal on Sunday, the third-seeded Pole setting herself up as a player to watch at the US Open.
The first win of the season for Radwanska provided a timely jolt of confidence going into Flushing Meadows and the year’s final Grand Slam, with 11 of her 14 career WTA Tour titles having come on hard courts.
“One of my biggest title,” said Radwanska, who has registered a long line of firsts for tennis in her country, including Poland’s first Grand Slam finalist and the first Pole to win a WTA Tour title. “As you can see in the draw, [I] had pretty [well] all top players. So very, very special title for me.”
Photo: EPA
Venus, a twice US Open champion, will also be buoyed by her performance in Montreal, with a projected return yesterday to the world top 20 for the first time since March last year.
The tournament also pushed Venus past US$30 million in career earnings, joining an elite club that includes her sister, Serena, and Maria Sharapova.
“I totally wanted to be in the top 20 like earlier this year,” Venus said. “I’ve been having goals. It’s always a goal in mind for myself and hopefully most tennis players. I would love to hit the top 16 and just keep going forward after that. Obviously, if I can continue this level of tennis, it will be something that can happen for me.”
After a grinding and emotional three-set win over top ranked sister Serena in Saturday’s semi-finals, the 34-year-old American appeared to have little left against an energetic and focused opponent almost 10 years her junior.
“It’s been a really long week, I played like six matches in a row,” Venus said. “Against her you really have to be patient. I just fell a little short today. I wanted to give more, but I just didn’t have it. I really would like to think under circumstances where I could give everything I have, that the results could have been a little different. She just was a little too good today.”
Radwanska took control early on a sunny Centre Court, breaking Venus twice to race 4-1 in front.
Venus would break back, but the world No. 5 would not buckle and easily took the opening set.
She opened the second set with another deflating break to quickly put the pressure on Venus and then broke the dejected American again to go 5-2 up, before holding serve and finishing off the match with an emphatic ace.
“I was playing much better every match,” Radwanska said. “I didn’t start that well from my first match. I think every match was much better.”
In the doubles final, top-seeded Italian pairing Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci claimed their 200th win as a duo when they beat fourth seeds Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Sania Mirza of India in a tight two-setter.
After winning the first set in a tiebreak, Errani and Vinci were a point from a 3-0 second-set deficit on Errani’s serve, but they found a way to win that game and six of the next seven, going on to a 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 victory.
“It was a difficult match,” Errani told the WTA Web site. “We didn’t play unbelievable tennis, but some of that is because they played so well. Mirza on the baseline was very good, as always. Cara at the net, of course, put pressure on us on the baseline. We had a very close first set and were down 5-4, 30-all. If we lost that, it could have changed the match. It was a good match.”
It was the Italian duo’s fifth WTA Tour title of the year and the 21st of their partnership.
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