SYDNEY: Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska stretched her winning streak to six matches with a straight sets victory over Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm in brutal heat at the Sydney International yesterday.
As temperatures soared above 41 degrees Celsius (106 Fahrenheit), the tournament top seed overcame an early break before wearing down 42-year-old Date-Krumm, winning 6-4, 6-3 in 70 minutes.
Radwanska, 23, went into the Sydney event immediately off the back of a win in Auckland without dropping a set, and is in great form heading into next week’s Australian Open in Melbourne.
Radwanska played in her first Grand Slam final last year at Wimbledon where she lost to Serena Williams in three sets.
At one stage last year she reached world No. 2 before slipping to her current four. German second seed Angelique Kerber overcame Kazakh qualifier Galina Voskoboeva 6-2, 7-5 and said playing in the heat was going to help her in Melbourne next week.
Former world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki went down in a titanic duel with former French and US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6 (7/4), 1-6, 6-2.
China’s fourth seed Li Na, who won in Sydney two years ago, breezed past Japanese qualifier Ayumi Morita, 6-1, 6-0, while Italian third seed Sara Errani downed Russian Maria Kirilenko, 6-1, 6-1.
Chinese Zheng Jie bowed out to American qualifier Madison Keys 6-0, 6-4, while Serbia’s former world No.1 Jelena Jankovic went out to Vinci in three sets.
In the men’s event, Bernard Tomic won the all-Australian night match with the country’s number one ranked player Marinko Matosevic, 6-3, 6-4.
Tomic continued his impressive unbeaten start to the southern summer season, including the prized scalp of world No.1 Novak Djokovic at last week’s Hopman Cup mixed teams event in Perth.
Monfils escapes
In Auckland, mercurial Frenchman Gael Monfils battled into the second round of the Heineken Open in Auckland yesterday, displaying flashes of brilliance as he came from behind to keep his injury comeback on track.
The former world number seven beat German Benjamin Becker 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-4 in the New Zealand tournament, a warm-up for this month’s Australian Open Grand Slam later this month.
While Monfils conceded his performance was patchy, he showed no signs of discomfort from the troublesome knee that marred much of his 2012 season.
Monfils’ serve proved a potent weapon in an error-strewn match, as he blasted down 19 aces, compared to just five from Becker, whose challenge faded after he won a first set tie breaker.
Elsewhere, Australian qualifier Greg Jones made a mockery of his 373 world ranking, notched his first win in five ATP matches to dispose of Austrian sixth seed Jurgen Melzer in straight sets.
Jones downed world number 29 Melzer 7-6 (9/7), 6-2, causing the Austrian to throw his racquet to the court in frustration as the Australian saved triple break point in the fifth game of the first set.
“It’s a pretty good feeling,” the 23-year-old Sydneysider said. “I trained really hard during the off-season.
In other first round matches, Colombian Santiago Giraldo thrashed Go Soeda of Japan 6-1, 6-0, Slovak Lukas Lacko downed Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi 6-3, 6-3 and Holland’s Igor Sijsling ground out a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over compatriot Robin Haase.
Canadian Jesse Levine made short work of New Zealand wild card Daniel King-Turner, strolling to a 6-2, 6-2 win, while Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan beat France’s Benoit Paire 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.
Defending champion and top seed David Ferrer of Spain will play for the first time on Wednesday after receiving a bye into the second round, along with Philipp Kohlschreiber and Tommy Haas, seeded two and three respectively, and American fourth seed Sam Querrey.
