By Adrianna Outlaw | Saturday, April 11, 2015
Camila Giorgi did not drop serve in dismissing top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4, 6-2, to reach her second straight Katowice Open final.
Photo credit: @KatowiceOpen
It was Agnieszka Radwanska's homecoming tournament, but an overpowering Camila Giorgi showed the top-seeded Pole the door.
Playing aggressive baseline tennis, Giorgi took the first strike and had the final word, upsetting the ninth-ranked Radwanska, 6-4, 6-2, to advance to the Katowice Open final for the second straight year.
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The 34th-ranked Italian denied all three break points she faced and hit the crafty Radwanska off the court in the second set.
"It was the best match I've played so far this week," Giorgi said. "I felt good. I was playing with confidence. I was really consistent and aggressive, and even if I made mistakes, I stayed focused."
The third-seeded Giorgi will face 20-year-old Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in a match of two young players meeting for the first time with both aiming for a first career WTA title.
The eighth-seeded Slovak swept Alison Van Uytvanck, 6-4, 6-1, in 75 minutes — the same amount of time it took Giorgi to defeat Radwanska.
"I was nervous before the match because it was the semifinals and Alison is a very good player," Schmiedlova said. "She has a really good serve and plays a lot of slice from the backhand, which I don't like so much, and a lot of drop shots too. Today I think she made a few mistakes in some of the important points, which gave me confidence, and I started playing better. I'm happy to get through."
It is the second final of the season for Schmiedlova, who was runner-up to 16th-ranked Sara Errani in the Rio final on clay in February.
Though the slender Giorgi stands just 5-foot-6, she is an explosive ball-striker and a Top 10 giant killer when she's timing the ball.
Giorgi's victory over the ninth-ranked Pole was her sixth career Top 10 triumph. She previously beat No. 7 Errani at the 2012 Beijing, surprised No. 8 Caroline Wozniacki in an electrifying night match at the 2013 U.S. Open and knocked off three Top 10 opponents last season: No. 5 Maria Sharapova at Indian Wells, No. 10 Dominika Cibulkova in Rome and No. 8 Victoria Azarenka at Eastbourne.
In their lone prior meeting, Radwanska defeated Giorgi, 6-2, 6-3, in the fourth round of the 2012 Wimbledon.
In today's rematch, Giorgi straddled the baseline, took the ball early, cracked her first strike into the corners and rarely permitted the home favorite the necessary time required to work her magic.
A year ago, Giorgi held a match point in both the Katowice final and Linz final, but could not close either match. She lost to Alize Cornet, 7-6 (3), 5-7, 7-5, after holding match point at 5-4 in the third set. In Linz, she held a match point at 6-5 in the third set before bowing to Karolina Pliskova, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (4).