Konta, Radwanska to meet in Sydney final
Print Edition
JOHANNA Konta ended the strong run of wildcard entry Eugenie Bouchard at the Sydney International yesterday, beating the Canadian 6-2, 6-2 to advance to today’s final against Agnieszka Radwanska.
The Sydney-born British player, a surprise semifinalist at last year’s Australian Open and seeded ninth for this year’s grand slam tournament, broke Bouchard’s serve in the third game of the first set, then broke again to open the second.
Bouchard had a breakout season in 2014, reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open and French Open before making the final at Wimbledon. But she has only gone past the fourth round at a major once since then and slipped to No. 46 at the end of last year.
Yesterday, Bouchard, who was trying to win three matches in a row for the first time in nearly a year, was overwhelmed by Konta’s groundstrokes and strong return of serve.
“I’ve played her (Radwanska) twice and lost to her twice, so hopefully I can step up tomorrow night against her,” said the 25-year-old Konta, who moved from Australia when she was 14 and became a British citizen in 2012.
Earlier, the second-seeded Radwanska beat a tired Barbora Strycova 6-1, 6-2.
It was Radwanska’s seventh consecutive win against the Czech, who toiled for more than 3 hours to beat Caroline Wozniacki the previous day, than backed that up with a doubles match.
“She played an unbelievable match against Caro (Wozniacki) in this kind of heat,” Radwanska said. “There were almost four hours on court with the break. I would say thanks to Caro.”
In men’s play, Gilles Muller beat second-seeded Pablo Cuevas 7-6 (5), 6-4 to advance to the semifinals against two-time defending champion Viktor Troicki.
Troicki had been scheduled to face No. 5 Philipp Kohlschreiber but the German withdrew with a back injury, handing the third-seeded Troicki a walkover.
In a night match, Daniel Evans had an upset 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over top-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria.
Evans, who beat a top-20 player for the first time with his win over the eighth-ranked Thiem, will next play Andrey Kuznetsov, who advanced with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over fourth-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta.
At the ASB Classic in Auckland, seventh-seeded Steve Johnson beat two-time champion John Isner 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3).
Johnson’s semifinal opponent will be fourth-seeded Jack Sock, who beat Jeremy Chardy 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
Eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis and unseeded Jaoa Sousa also advanced with straight-set victories. Sousa beat Robin Haase 6-3, 6-2 while Baghdatis defeated 2015 champion Jiri Vesely 6-2, 6-4.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
