2015 Australian Open Update: Williams, Radwanska Through To 4th Round
Top women’s players Serena Williams of the United States and Agnieszka Radawanska of Poland posted contrasting victories on Friday in the third round of the 2015 Australian Open. The world no. 1 and top seed in Melbourne lost the first set to Elina Svitolina of Ukraine but came back to net the victory, 4-6 6-2 6-0 while Radwanska won in straight sets, 6-0 7-5 over American Varvara Lepchenko.
Williams credited her opponent’s improvement over the years and wasn’t surprised why she struggled in the early part.
“I think it's changed a lot. I think even back then she was really young, but she had this fire in her eyes and she had this desire. I could see it then. Even today she still has so much growth to do, which she's going to do. She's improving so much,” Williams said in the tournament’s official website. Williams had 14 unforced errors in the first set where she lost 6-4 but recovered to dominate the second and third sets where she had a combined 33 winners to Svitolina’s 16 winners.
In the next round, Williams faces Garbine Muguruza of Spain and Radwanska takes on Serena’s sister, Venus. Muguruza was responsible for Williams’ early exit at the 2014 French Open and the American was asked in the press conference of the upcoming match-up.
“Losing. But it was a good loss. As angry as I was, it was the best loss I had the whole year last year. Had a lot of them. But that one in particular made me realize what I needed to work on,” Williams admitted when asked of her 6-2 6-2 loss to Muguruza at Roland Garros. “It opened my eyes towards a lot of things. I was like, Oh, my gosh, if I don't change, then I'm going to be forever in the same position. It actually ended up helping me a lot.”
Meanwhile, Radwanska dominated Varvara Lepchenko in the first set thanks to 10/10 first serve points won and four aces. The second set was more competitive but the Polish broke the American twice to net the win.
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