SYDNEY: The Agnieszka Radwanska juggernaut ran over hapless Dominika Cibulkova yesterday, as the Pole won the Sydney International to take her unbeaten streak this year to nine ahead of the Australian Open.

The top seed crushed Cibulkova 6-0, 6-0 in just over an hour for back-to-back tournament victories, making the perfect preparation for the year-opening Grand Slam, which starts in Melbourne on Monday.

It was the world No. 4’s 12th career singles title and she has yet to drop a set this year.

“I’m extremely happy that I’ve won two titles in a row and not even losing one set. It’s really been amazing two weeks,” Radwanska said.

“I definitely didn’t really expect that at all. She’s a great player and she had some great wins this week, so I definitely didn’t really expect that score.” Radwanska overpowered Cibulkova, ranked 14th in the world, breaking her serve six times, winning 68 percent of the points and capitalizing on her error-prone opponent.

Cibulkova, who was unseeded in the tournament, double-faulted on match point to cap a miserable night’s work.

Radwanska, who beat Belgian Yanina Wickmayer in the Auckland Classic final last week, made it two tournaments in a row, with wins in Sydney over 1994 winner Kimiko Date-Krumm, Roberta Vinci, Li Na and Cibulkova.

But the 23-year-old remains at world No. 4 heading into Melbourne where she will compete against the top three — Victoria Azarenka, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova.

Radwanska faces Australian qualifier Bojana Bobusic in the opening round of the Open and is seeded to face China’s Li Na in the quarters and Sharapova in the semis.

It was the shortest Sydney women’s final by games since Gabriela Sabatini’s 6-1, 6-1 win over Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1992.

Radwanska joins a Sydney champions’ list in one of the oldest tournaments in the world, which includes Azarenka, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, Martina Hingis, and Monica Seles in the last few decades.

Cibulkova was the first unseeded player in six years to reach the Sydney final, beating German second seed Angelique Kerber to reach the decider.

Ferrer in final

Meanwhile, David Ferrer underlined his Australian Open threat by thrashing Gael Monfils 6-1, 6-2 to reach the final of the Auckland Open yesterday and remain on course for a fourth title at the tournament.

Undoubtedly aided by a leg injury suffered by Monfils early in the first set, Ferrer needed just 49 minutes to dispose of the French former world No. 7, five minutes less than he required to win his quarterfinal against Lukas Lacko.

The Spaniard, fourth seed for Melbourne Park in the absence of injured compatriot Rafa Nadal, will face Philipp Kohlschreiber in today’s final after the German beat American Sam Querrey 6-4, 7-6 in the earlier semi-final.

Former US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro expended similarly little effort in reaching the final of the Kooyong Classic, easing past Marcos Baghdatis 6-4, 6-1 at the former Australian Open venue.

The world No.7, who was drawn to play a qualifier in the first round of the year’s first grand slam, will meet former world No.1 Lleyton Hewitt in today’s final at the exhibition event.

Kevin Anderson had a much tougher day at the office but clinched a place in the final of the Sydney International with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 victory over Julien Benneteau in a grueling semifinal encounter.

The South African fired down 18 aces to get back into the contest after the Frenchman had won the first set and wrapped up victory with a volley at the net on his third match point after an exhausting 153 minutes in the Sydney heat.

Anderson, the first South African to reach the final in Sydney in the Open era, will meet the winner of the second semifinal between resurgent Australian young gun Bernard Tomic and the last surviving seed, Italy’s Andreas Seppi.

In the Hobart warm-up, Russian Elena Vesnina upset American eighth seed Sloane Stephens 6-2 6-2 to reach today’s final, where she will play defending champion Mona Barthel or Kirsten Flipkens.

India to field rookies

India’s tennis chiefs yesterday named a new-look team for next month’s Davis Cup tie against South Korea after a revolt by the country’s top players.

The new squad has only one prominent member in Leander Paes, who has steered clear of the eight-player rebellion including Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Somdev Devvarman.

Anil Dhupar, the All India Tennis Association (AITA) chairman of selectors, said that stars such as Open-winning doubles partners Bhupathi and Bopanna had not been considered for selection because they had acted unreasonably in a dispute revolving around pay and support staff.

Lesser-known V. M. Ranjit, Vijayant Malik and Purav Raja were the other players named to take part in the Asia-Oceania group one tie in Delhi from Feb. 1-3.

Last Sunday, AITA bosses accepted most of the demands of the rebel group including higher prize money but rejected a request to remove non-playing captain Shiv Mishra.