Radwanska gets her groove back to defeat Bacsinszky

A player can get her game boosted at anytime and make a run after a few defeats and injuries. This appears to be happening to Agnieszka Radwanska.

It was nearly 12 years ago that Agnieszka Radwanska won her junior singles title here at Wimbledon and she has the same enthusiasm today.

Back in April she started the clay court season at the 2017 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. It was a loss to Ekaterina Makarova in the first round, but later a withdraw from the Madrid and Rome tournaments followed because of a foot injury. It sidelined her for over a month, but with intense treatment and rest, she came back strong to win seven of eight matches.

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She later had to withdraw from the 2017 Ricoh Open and the 2017 Aegon Classic at Birmingham because of a viral illness.

Radwanska did return to the Aegon International, still weak from the virus and felt defeat at the hands of Lauren Davis. This made Radwanska uncertain of her performance when she came into Wimbledon without having a victory on grass since last year.

For Radwanska, it is a relief to be healthy and injury-free after three rounds of Wimbledon. Jelena Jankovic was her first round opponent, but she wasn’t in great form and it was a straight set victory for the Pole.

Christina McHale made quite a challenge as Radwanska fought off two match points in the second round so as not to be upset by the American. The first set soon became tied 5-all and McHale was able to break Radwanska as she lost the game on a careless double-fault serve. McHale had the first set but Radwanska won the second set tiebreaker and then the third-deciding set was hers as she became aggressive to not let any more carelessness stop her from winning this round.

She fought and was defiant, winning over McHale 5-7, 7-6, 6-3. But the Swiss was another story who enjoyed her maiden performance at Centre Court and confident after their history of her winning 13 times over their past 17 meetings. Timea Bacsinszky put together a great mix of shots and paces of strokes to surprise Radwanska, and winning the first set.

"The Swiss had lost her magic and said “It’s quite frustrating, because I think I played a great first set. I was putting so much strength as well in my shots and I could go for the winners…”"

She began to have a change of luck and in the middle of the second set, felt sharp pains in her thigh and leg.

"“I was struggling a lot to get low in my knees and which had helped me very much in my first two rounds. I’m pretty sad that happened…” With Bacsinszky ailing, Radwanska took full advantage and was determined to win this last set, she explained that “After the second set I just found my game and I was trying to be more aggressive…I was serving better in the third set”. Radwanska’s third round victory over Bacsinszky at 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 was welcomed as she says “I had a great match…she’s a really tricky opponent. She can do everything on court…playing aggressive and then also slices, mixing up all the things…it was a great match from the beginning till the end”."

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Radwanska’s fourth round opponent is Svetlana Kuznetsova of which three years ago she defeated her on the Madrid clays.

"“We have played so many matches, so many good ones…playing her is always challenging, Radwanska cleverly says."

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