This was her 19th WTA tournament victory. Pegula has nothing to lose and that can make her a unsafe opponent in the first round.
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She ran the 21-year-old Ukrainian all over the court, chasing down shots and placing her own with pinpoint accuracy. Radwanska netted a forehand of her own to put Svitolina level at 5-all. From this point of the match, Elina Svitolina wins four consecutive games to end the second set. Bondarenko and Chuang knocked off top seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3, 5-7, 10-7, in the other semifinal.
Radwanska didn’t lose a set this week. Svitolina, however, notched the next three points, including the set point on Larsson’s unforced error.
“It all came down to a few points today”, said Flipkens, a victor over Venus Williams in Rio.
But she has never advanced past the fourth round in NY, even though her game seems well-suited for the hard courts. “She placed it really well”.
Petra Kvitova moved closer to a third straight Connecticut Open crown after defeating Ekaterina Makarova 6-3 6-1 to reach the semi-finals on Thursday.
She becomes the first top seed to win since Caroline Wozniacki did it in 2011. The title is Radwanska’s second this season after taking the Shenzhen Open in China in January. Radwanska also has to win the U.S. Open to collect the bonus challenge dough.
She is also in line to make an additional $1 million with a win in NY. And she will be among the few that are legitimate challengers to Serena Williams for the U.S. Open title. “It will be worth it, right?” Vinci next faces Johanna Larsson, a lucky loser in qualifying who defeated wild-card entrant Shelby Rogers 7-6 (7/1), 6-4 for a berth in the quarter-finals.
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“She’s a really young, talented player”, Radwanska said. “I’m disappointed in the loss but still proud of how I fought”, he said. She leaves, en route to NY and the U.S. Open, with her 19th career WTA singles title in tow after a dominating week at the Connecticut Tennis Center.
