Victoria Azarenka’s defence of her Australian Open title has been brought to an end by fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in Melbourne.
Radwanska prevailed 6-1, 5-7, 6-0 in two hours. It continued a stream of upsets, coming in the wake of shock defeats to Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. It also snapped Radwanska’s own seven match losing streak to the World No. 2.
The match began with Radwanska racing out to a 5-0 lead before Azarenka registered on the scoreboard. That game prevented the bagel but the Belorussian was powerless to prevent the Pole from closing out the first set.
Azarenka rallied in the second set, making her move when Radwanska was serving to stay in the set at 5-6. She returned aggressively and finally got her reward by taking the game and the set with a powerful crosscourt winner.
With the match carefully poised at one set each, the momentum switched again with Radwanska storming back on the back of some superb winners. Azarenka was visibly frustrated and it crept into her game.
Radwanska was not to be denied and took the set with a 6-0 bagel to end the champion’s reign.
“Play aggressive and go for every shot that I could. That was what I was trying to do and it worked today,” stated Radwanska after the match.
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Cover Photo: globalite, Creative Commons License