Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Alizé Cornet 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 40 minutes to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2015 Connecticut Open for the first time in her career, in five attempts in New Haven.
Before the Match
Radwanska and Cornet have met six times before with the Pole leading the head-to-head series, 5-1. Their last meeting came two weeks ago on the hard courts of Toronto, Canada, where Radwanska won 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
Radwanska Able to Hold Onto Decisive Break to Secure the Opening Set
Coming into this match, there were guaranteed to be lots of long rallies in every game as both players are great counterpunchers who are able to defend incredibly well. The opening stages of the match made that theory very clear as both players were trying to ware each other down early. In the first four games of the first set, the server was unable to hold serve as both women returned extremely well. As a result, they exchanged breaks until they got to 2-all in the opening set. From there, Cornet buckled down and saved two break points, en route to holding serve for the first time in the match.
Trailing 2-3, Radwanska was able to maneuver the ball from side-to-side, making the Frenchwoman run everything down. In the end, her consistency was too much for Cornet as she managed to holding her own serve for the first time of this encounter to level the opening set at three games all. Unsurprisingly, the server's woes continued in this first set as after both women held their respective service games, Cornet was broken again.
Now with the advantage again, Radwanska was looking to consolidate the break. It was a case of third time lucky as the Pole finally managed to open up a two game advantage after failing to do so on two previous attempts. Despite this, Cornet was not going to go away. Being the tremendous fighter that she is, the French number one fought off three set points to hold. Now up 5-4, Radwanska had the chance to close out the first set, which she did at love, to win the first set 6-4.
Too Little, Too Late from Cornet as Radwanska Completes the Win
Radwanska's superb returning continued as she broke Cornet to go up an early break in the second set. The Frenchwoman was trying to dictate more points now but the Pole's world class defence and counter-punching made it hard for her to string together a series of points early in set number two. The former world number two consolidated the break to open up a 2-0 lead. Despite Cornet's best efforts to counter the variety of her opponent, 2-0 quickly became 3-0 for Radwanska as the Pole looked to be cruising into the quarterfinals of the Connecticut Open. Could Cornet come back from a set and a double break now?
Judging by the next game, it looked like the rest of the match was going to be all Radwanska. With a hold to 30, the Polish number one was only two games away from securing a spot in the last eight. To Cornet's credit, she did try to mount a come back as she managed to save a break point to hold. Now trailing 1-4, the Frenchwoman needed three break point opportunities before finally converting the third to recover one of two breaks in the second set. Could Cornet continue this momentum?
Unfortunately for her, the answer was no. Serving down 2-4, Cornet had a game point opportunity but she double faulted on that point to push the game to deuce. From there, Radwanska's brutal consistency forced two costly unforced errors from Cornet's racquet and all of a sudden, the Pole had regained her double break advantage and was going to serve for the match after the changeover. Agnieszka Radwanska only needed one match point in the next game to defeat Alizé Cornet 6-4, 6-2 to advance to her maiden Connecticut Open quarterfinal. She will play Petra Kvitova, who defeated Madison Keys in three sets, next.