Indian Wells – World number one Serena Williams won her fourth-round Indian Wells match on Tuesday, routing the 70th ranked Kateryna Bondarenko 6-2, 6-2 on the main stadium court. Radwanska earned her opportunity against the American by knocking off Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals in straight sets 6-2, 7-6, and has plenty of momentum on her side.
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The 27-year-old, who was a runner-up at the event two years ago, raced into a 4-0 lead in the tie-break before wrapping up victory after a little more than an hour and a half at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
The surface may test Williams against Radwanska, but she looked like someone set to win a title at Indian Wells on Wednesday.
“I have nothing to lose, will have a good rest and be ready for the semis”.
Radwanska’s win, achieved from 4-2 down in the second set, means she will rise to second in the WTA rankings on Monday, regardless of her result against Williams.
“It’ll be a really good match I think for both of us to kind of see where we want to be at this point in the year”, top seed Williams told reporters of the showdown against the Romanian in California.
Radwanska, who beat Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic in the previous round, breezed through the opening set against an error-prone Kvitova on a hot afternoon in the California desert.
Though the Czech produced much better form to open a three-game lead in the second, Radwanska clawed back the deficit before dominating the tiebreaker, helped by a few generous net cords.
“I think it will be a really good match-up”. She had one of the best seasons in recent memory in 2015, but isn’t any less dominant this year. “I managed to step in and return very well”. The nine-time French Open victor Nadal then used his experience to seize control and win the final three games and close out the match.
The fourth-seeded Spaniard next faces German Alexander Zverev who defeated Gilles Simon in straight sets 6-2, 6-2.
“This is painful right now, but it doesn’t change anything about the process”, Zverev said.
They played a brilliant three tiebreaker match at Cincinnati in 2011, went five sets in the semis of the 2009 Australian Open and earlier this year they played another five setter in Melbourne with Verdasco handing Nadal just his second ever first-round defeat in a Grand Slam. I think she’s super exciting to watch on the court, and off the court I think she’s really one of the nicest people.
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Spain’s Feliciano Lopez defeated Roberto Bautista 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (10/12), 6-4.
