Agnieszka Radwanska continued her dominance of Eugenie Bouchard, beating the Canadian in straight sets to advance to the third round of the Australian Open. There she will meet Monica Puig who survived the hard-hitting Kristyna Pliskova in the round of 64 to set up this intriguing affair.
Agnieszka Radwanska barged into the third round of the Australian Open for the seventh consecutive year with an emphatic 6-4, 6-2 win over Eugenie Bouchard on Wednesday. Radwanska put forth an extreme masterclass, dominating the Canadian right from the get-go and finishing the match in just one hour and 23 minutes.
[sc:AUS15-250 ]Key to Radwanska’s triumph was her much-improved service game. In her previous match against Christina McHale, Radwanska only managed to get 33 of her 57 first serves in for a measly 58 percent clip. Radwanska was much better in that department this time around connecting on 40 of her 68 first serves.
That proved to be extremely helpful for Radwanska as she won 26 points out of those 40 first serves. It helped the Polish star in applying pressure on Bouchard and kept the Canadian on the back foot for majority of the match. Radwanska also had better control of her game, committing just 12 unforced errors as opposed to Bouchard’s 37.
Next up for Radwanska is a third-round clash with Monica Puig. This will be the first meeting between Radwanska and Puig in the WTA Tour. For Radwanska to beat Puig, she needs to continue her excellent return play. She won 47 percent (24-of-51) of her receiving points against Bouchard with Radwanska converting all of her four break point opportunities.
Monica Puig barged into the third round of the 2016 Australian Open with a thrilling 4-6, 7-6(6), 9-7 win over Kristyna Pliskova on Wednesday. It was a fantastic performance by Puig who needed two hours and 20 minutes to record the come-from-behind victory. With the win, Puig reached the last 32 at Melbourne for the first time in her career.
Puig survived the blistering serve of Pliskova who rifled in a whopping 31 aces, the most ever in a women’s match. Things are bound to get tougher, though, for Puig as standing in her way in the next round is the fourth-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska who has yet to drop a set in this tournament.
For Puig to record the massive upset, she needs to improve on her first serve percentage. She converted just 59 percent of her first serves in the match against Pliskova. That’s trouble against Radwanska who has converted 11 of her 15 break point chances in this tournament thus far.
