Agnieszka Radwanska experienced little difficulty during her 6-2, 6-3, dismissal of Olympic champion Monica Puig in the quarter-finals of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
The second seed overpowered her Puerto Rican opponent from the onset, dropping just three points on her serve in the opening set to seal the lead in less than 30 minutes. The second set saw a more competitive encounter between the two players, however, Puig’s fragile serve was proved too costly. The Olympic champion only managed to win 36% of her second service points as Radwanska eased her way into the semifinals of the tournament.
”In this level of match you have to play well to win by that kind of score,” said 2011 champion Radwanska.
”I knew Monica was in great form, winning the gold, but you just have to go on court and play your game. I was serving great today and that helped me a lot.”
In the semifinals Radwanska will face former world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. The world No.28 ended the run of Polish qualifier Magda Linette with a 6-4, 6-3, victory. The encounter wasn’t all plain sailing for Wozniacki, who had to twice recover from a break down in the second set before closing the match out against the world No.109.
“She’s been playing really well lately, had a lot of matches. She’s a good friend of mine and we practice a lot so we know each other’s game,” the Dane said about Linette.
“I was just happy that I stayed tough and managed to serve it out in the end.”
Saturday’s semi-final will be the 13th encounter between Radwanska and Wozniacki on the tour. The second seed trails the head-to-head 4-8 and has lost her three most recent matches against Wozniacki.
Japanese jubilation for Osaka
Naomi Osaka was able to continue her breakthrough run in Tokyo by fighting back from a 0-5 deficit in the second set to defeat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-3, 7-6(6).
Proceedings were set to go into a third set as Sasnovich moved to two points away from clinching the set before the 18-year-old clawed her way back to force a tiebreak. The tiebreaker saw Sasnovich buckle under the pressure after back-to-back double faults on set point elevated Osaka to match point. She sealed the win with her fourth ace of the match.
Awaiting Osaka in the next round will be either Garbine Muguruza or Elina Svitolina. Both players are ranked higher than the 18-year-old, however, Osaka believes that factor will be an advantage for her.
“I do better when I play a person with a higher ranking than me because I am not expecting to win.” She said during her on-court interview.
“I just wanted to do well and I think semis are pretty good. I’m just going to try to get to the finals and focus on my next match.”
Reaching her first premier semi-final, Osaka is set to break the world’s top 60 and could move into the top 50 if she progresses to the final.
