Radwanska stuns world No. 1 Halep

Mar 25, 2018 11:42 am

Former champion Agnieszka Radwanska stunned world No. 1 Simona Halep in the third round of the Miami Open, winning 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Saturday.

Radwanska, who won in Miami in 2012, claimed six of the last seven games in the deciding set to claim the victory after an hour and 48 minutes.

Fifth seed Karolina Pliskova had a tough time before battling past Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and three-time Miami champion Victoria Azarenka needed three sets to get past Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia.

Halep, who was beaten by eventual champion Naomi Osaka in the Indian Wells semi-finals last week, took advantage of a woeful service game and 10 unforced errors by her opponent to take the first set.

But Radwanska, who held her serve only once in the opening set, dropped just four points in the opening four games of the second, breaking twice and opening up a 4-0 lead.

She broke again late in the set to even the match.

Halep broke early in the third to lead 2-0 but unforced errors – 44 in total against 31 winners – proved too much for her to overcome and Radwanska emerged with the victory.

Czech Pliskova was pushed all the way by Hsieh before wrapping up the match 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4).

After former world No. 1 Pliskova won a close first set, doubles specialist Hsieh dominated the second as her opponent made 12 errors.

The Czech broke at 5-3 in the third set before Hsieh saved three match-points to break back. Pliskova came close again to winning the match but Hsieh held serve to set up a tiebreak where the Czech closed it out on her seventh match-point.

Azarenka also went the distance against Sevastova, and while the former world No. 1 said she was not firing on all cylinders, she was happy to grind out a result.

“I don’t feel like I played my best tennis, but those kind of matches are super important for me right now,” Azarenka said after her 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over the 20th seed. – REUTERS