Canadian Eugenie Bouchard admitted her heart was pounding during an Australian Open second-round defeat against fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.
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In Melbourne on Wednesday, Bouchard started strongly as she went a break up in the first set, but Radwanska responded immediately with a double break. She made 18 more unforced errors while losing the second, set 6-2, and made 37 total unforced errors. She was hitting the ball very good. So I still need to work hard on that.
While she has never won an Australian Open, or a grand slam for that matter, the Australian Open is her most consistent with it being six years since she was knocked out before the fourth round.
She next plays Canadian Eugenie Bouchard or Serb Aleksandra Krunic as she seeks to go one better than the semi-finals, her deepest run at Melbourne Park which came in 2014.
“This is a new season, new tournament”. She switched coaches to start last year, parting with longtime mentor Nick Saviano, who was with her for eight years.
Radwanska did not appear to be hampered in the match against McHale, which she closed out in 80 minutes.
“She said after that she is missing high-calibre matches”.
No. 13 seed Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., will face unseeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo late Wednesday in second-round play.
“Of course, I’m confident about my game and I really feel good on court”. There were 11 breaks of serve, including 4 times Radwanska’s serve was broken.
After a number of momentum shifts in the opening stages of the match, an emphatic forehand on the rise earned the Pole the first set.
The 25-year-old from Vancouver dropped a 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 decision to his 14th-ranked opponent in a match that lasted two hours 47 minutes.
Bouchard and Radwanska have only played each other once in the past and that was on the clay in Madrid back in 2014. While Radwanska has always been among the elite women’s players, she has yet to break through at the majors, coming closest at Wimbledon in 2012 when she was runner-up to Serena Williams. But the crafty Krakow-native was in command in no time, wrapping up a 6-2, 6-4 victory to set up a final date with world No. 97 Alison Riske of the United States.
Right, now you should be more or less up to speed, let’s get on with the evening session…
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Maria Sharapova became the first player to advance to the third round at the Australian Open when she beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus 6-2, 6-1.
