Radwanska Sisters Reach Quarters of Brussels Open

By Erik Gudris                          Photo Credit: Virginie Lefour/AFP/Getty

(May 23rd, 2012) Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska had little trouble reaching the quarterfinals of this week's Brussels Open but it was her younger sister who provided the surprise of the event so far as she took out No. 2 seed Marion Bartoli.

The elder Radwanska took on Lesia Tsurenko and had little trouble as she dismissed Tsurenko 6-1, 6-0 in under an hour. Radwanska, who is now into her 10th quarterfinal of the year, will next face Belgian wildcard Alison Van Uytvanck.

While her older sister was expected to reach the quarterfinals, the same wasn't expected of Urszula Radwanska who took on No. 2 seed Marion Bartoli. But it was the younger Radwanska who looked ready for the opportunity as she jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first set. Bartoli fought back to 3-all.

But Radwanska regained her momentum to take the first set and from there she never looked back as she earned a 6-4, 6-2 win and with it her third career win over a top ten player.

"Of course Marion is a great player, but I was just focusing on my game," Radwanska said later. "The crowd was really good to me today, it felt like I was at home. The courts are really nice and things have been going well for me. I will just keep trying my best in my next match."

The other big upset of the day belonged to Tsvetana Pironkova who knocked out No. 10 seed Nadia Petrova 6-3, 6-2 in just over an hour.

Other seeds advancing on the day included No. 4 seed Dominika Cibulkova who rallied from 1-4 down in the second set to take out Belgian No.1 Yanina Wickmayer 6-3, 6-4 while No. 8 seed Kaia Kanepi easily beat Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski 6-2, 6-2.