Auckland: Normal service resumed at the ASB Classic women’s tennis tournament on Tuesday as the top two seeds Agnieszka Radwanska and Julia Goerges moved easily into the second round.
Sport | Tennis
Radwanska shows class in first round romp
Defending champion Jie, Kuznetsova among seeds to fall
- AFP
- Published: 13:46 January 1, 2013
Radwanska, the top seed and world number four, quickly disposed of former Auckland champion Greta Arn 6-2, 6-2, while Goerges was in similar command against qualifier Anastasija Sevastova, winning 6-3, 6-4.
They were far more accomplished performances than seen on the opening day when defending champion and fourth seed Zheng Jie, former world number two Svetlana Kuznetsova and seventh seed Christina McHale were first round losers.
Radwanska, who was beaten in three sets by Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final last year, had too much finesse for Arn who is ranked 110 places below her. She wrapped up the match in just over an hour, dominating from the baseline and wearing Arn down in a series of rallies.
“I think this is my style. To be honest, I don’t really work on that, I was just born to play like that,” said the 56 kilo Polish player.
“With my body I can’t serve 200 kilometres an hour so I think I have to mix up everything and try to do something else, not just powerful shots.”
Goerges, a top 20 player who usually dominates with a powerful first serve, was woefully off target in the first set against Sevastova with only a 33 percent success rate.
But she was able to rely on her extensive groundstroke armoury which proved too much for her 22-year-old Latvian opponent, who ranks 184th in the world. The only ranked player to fall on the second day was fifth seed Sorana Cirstea. The Romanian retired hurt after losing the first set 6-3 to Britain’s Heather Watson.
Fact Box
RESULTS
ASB Classic (x denotes seed):
1st round: Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZx6) bt Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino (ESP) 6-3, 6-2
Agnieszka Radwanska (POLx1) bt Greta Arn (HUN) 6-2, 6-2
Marina Erakovic (NZL) bt Stephanie Dubois (CAN) 6-2, 6-1
Heather Watson (GBR) bt Sorana Cirstea (ROUx5) 6-3, rtd
Romina Oprandi (SUI) bt Nudnida Luangnam (THA) 6-0, 6-2
Mona Barthel (GERx8) bt Grace Min (USA) 6-1, 6-3
Julia Goerges (GERx2) bt Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) 6-3, 6-4
Brisbane International
Men’s Singles Round 1 matches on Tuesday Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) beat Brian Baker (U.S.) 6-3 7-6(8) David Goffin (Belgium) beat Matthew Ebden (Australia) 6-2 6-2 Tommy Robredo (Spain) beat Ryan Harrison (U.S.) 6-4 7-6(4) 7-Jurgen Melzer (Austria) beat Denis Kudla (U.S.) 2-6 6-4 6-4 John Millman (Australia) beat Tatsuma Ito (Japan) 6-4 6-1 Alejandro Falla (Colombia) beat Jesse Levine (U.S.) 6-1 7-6(8) Denis Istomin (Uzbekistan) beat 8-Martin Klizan (Slovakia) 6-1 6-2
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