Radwanska Begins in Cincy as Kvitova Battles into Third Round

By Erik Gudris

(August 15, 2012) -- On a brutally hot day, top seed Agnieszka Radwanska overcame the heat and a tougher than expected opponent to advance at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati. Facing Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden, Radwanska found herself down several breaks of serve throughout the match but managed to close out a 6-4, 6-3 win in just under 90 minutes.

"The first match is always the most difficult, especially, you know, every week we play on different surface and different balls and different conditions," Radwanska said. "But I'm just happy that I went through, especially in the two sets, because today was really, really hot."

Radwanska finds herself not only as a contender for this month's U.S. Open but also for the No. 1 ranking depending on she plays the rest of the summer and she talked about how she's managing her expectations especially after having a banner year so far.

"Well, I think at this level, especially I know that I can win big tournaments like Miami or Dubai, you always expecting, you know, to be at least in the semifinals. So, I mean, I don't have much points to defend from last year in the U.S. Open, so we will see."

Next up for Radwanska will be a first time meeting against American Sloane Stephens who closed out a convincing 6-2, 6-1 win over Italian wildcard Camila Giorgi.

Venus Williams once again was forced to battle as she was back out on the courts again today this time facing South Africa's Chanelle Scheepers. Scheepers claimed the first set easily but Williams, despite serving a mediocre 53% first serves for the match, rallied to take the next two sets to earn a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory. Williams next faces No. 7 seed Sara Errani who dispatched Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-4.

Montreal champion Petra Kvitova got all she could handle from not only the extreme heat and humidity but also from Germany's Mona Barthel who pushed Kvitova in three tough sets before Barthel, down match point on her serve, double faulted away the match 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.

"I think she played so well in the first set," said Kvitova who next plays Shuai Peng "She was really aggressive from the beginning, and then she did some mistakes. So that's help me for a little bit of confident and to play more rallies and win more points."

The final day match saw No. 6 seed Caroline Wozniacki crush Sesil Karatancheva 6-1, 6-0 in just under an hour.

(Photo Credit: Cincy Tennis FB)