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Agnieszka Radwanska, the top seed at the Bank of the West Classic, beat Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, 6-4, 6-3, in a second round match on Wednesday.
Radwanska grew up without a tennis academy around. In fact, it was hard to find a place indoors to practice, even in winter.
The summer chill of a July evening at Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Center is a far cry from a bone-chilling experience behind school buildings when it was below zero.
Yesterday, the training paid off with her win over Schiavone.
In other singles matches, sixth-seeded Varvana Lepchenko beat Austria’s Tamira Paszek, 6-4, 6-4 and No. 5 seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania topped Coco Vandeweghe, 6-3, 6-3.
Stanford product Mallory Burdette and Cirstea dropped their doubles match to the third-seeded duo of Daniela Hantochova and Lisa Raymond, 2-6, 6-3, 10-8. Raymond won an NCAA singles title at Stanford while attending Florida.
In other doubles action, Julia Georges and Darija Jurak downed Dominika Cibulkova and Monica Niculescu, 4-6, 6-4, 10-8; Olga Govortsova and Alla Kudryavtseva defeated Miki Miyamura and Olga Puchkova, 6-3, 6-1; and Racquel Kops-Jones, a Cal grad, and Abigail Spears bettered Christina McHale and Paszek, 4-6, 6-3, 10-8.
Radwanska (shouldn’t she have the nickname A-Rad?) always returns to Poland, though these days she can workout under much better conditions.
“I was always practicing on different surfaces, even carpet and ice, and I think that makes it easier for me to adjust to any surface,” said Radwanska, who reached the final at Wimbledon last month. “I stay in Poland because I can appreciate being home. I can have a normal life for a few days.”
Radwanska, who has won 77 percent of her matches this season, wasn’t serving well but managed to keep winning points.
“Serving was not the key in this match at all,” Radwanska said. “I think we both struggled. I had to find a different way to win.”
Radwanska meets Lepchenko in Friday’s quarterfinal. The 40th-ranked Lepchenko qualified for her second quarterfinal of the season.
“I hope to play better in each match,” Lepchenko said. “I’m going to focus on the things I need to do to play well on the big stages.”
The 32nd-ranked Cirstea, Romania’s second-ranked player, reached the semifinal last year. She’ll meet unseeded Olga Govortsova in the quarterfinal. Govortsova upset second-seeded Samantha Stosur on Tuesday.
“I’m happy to be back,” Cirstea said. “I played well here last year and have many good memories. It’s a good start to what is to come.”
Vandeweghe, who reached the final last year, went through qualifying to gain a spot in the main draw.
“It’s not easy to play her,” Cirstea said. “She serves big and has a big game. You have to be there every single point.”
Palo Alto Online Sports
Palo Alto Online Sports
