Tennis News

BEIJING China – No.3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska returned to the final of the China Open for the third time in her career after edging past Elina Svitolina in straight sets.

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Svitolina took advantage of Radwanska’s sluggish start to push her early in the first set, but the Pole survived to advance 7-6(3), 6-3 in an hour and forty minutes.

“Well, definitely a bit too slow start for me,” Radwanska assessed. “Suddenly it was 3-5. As we know, this is a score you can definitely come back. Serve was not really the key of that match, either my serve or her.”

“I was just very glad I could come back in that first set. I think it was very important. I just played a great tiebreaker, so that helped me a lot for sure in that match.”

Both Svitolina and Radwanska advanced to their semifinal match without dropping a set in Beijing, but after trading breaks to start, it was the Ukrainian who struck first. She stepped into a Radwanska lob and hammered it cross court, earning a break in fifth game which she built up into a 5-3 lead.

Radwanska was left to play catch-up, using every trick in her arsenal to stay within touching distance before finally breaking back and leveling the match. The Pole dominated in the tiebreaker, flying out to a 5-0 lead before eventually claiming the set.

She shot to a double break lead in the final set, and saved a pair of break points to keep her nose ahead. She broke once again in the final game of the match to claim another straight sets victory in Beijing.

Radwanska books a clash against Top 10 debutante Johanna Konta for a shot at her second China Open title.

“Just very, very happy to be in the third final here in Beijing,” Radwanska said. “Well, is a great event. As we know, everybody is playing here. It’s always good to be in the final that all the top players were here.”

2011 champ @ARadwanska is back in the @ChinaOpen Final! ? pic.twitter.com/aNQv1mbvzA

— WTA (@WTA) October 8, 2016

BEIJING, China – Johanna Konta upset Madison Keys to reach the final of the China Open and become the first British player in 32 years to reach the Top 10.

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This summer in Montréal, Konta had the chance to reach the Top 10 only to slip to a surprise defeat at the hands of World No.121 Kristina Kucova. However, this time she rose to the occasion magnificently, withstanding a mid-match comeback from Keys to complete a 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-4 win.

“I’m definitely enjoying my time here. It’s my first time in Beijing and I hope to play many more times here. It’s an amazing atmosphere, such a beautiful stadium, it’s a real pleasure to play here,” Konta said in her on-court interview.

Keys had produced one of the performances of her career 24 hours earlier to defeat Petra Kvitova, but failed to scale those heights against Konta, committing 47 unforced errors in their two and a half hours on court. Nevertheless, she still had her chances and looked to be headed for victory when she skipped around a return to break in the first game of the deciding set.

Instead it was Konta that took charge, drawing level immediately and threatening further breaks. Keys’ serve bailed her out on several occasions, but she finally buckled at 5-4 to send Konta into her first Premier Mandatory final.

“I don’t really think there was a secret [to winning],” Konta added. “She’s such a high-quality player, has such a weight of shot -I’m pretty sure I was cleaning the back of the court there! I just tried to run down as many balls as I could and tried to take the chances I got.”

Konta can now look forward to a meeting against 2011 Beijing champion Agnieszka Radwanska. 

“It’s really special. As I said I’m just enjoying being here and trying to prolong it as long as possible and I feel very blessed to be coming back tomorrow for the final.”

On Monday she will also become the 121st different player to reach the Top 10 since the WTA Rankings were introduced on November 3, 1975. She is the fourth Briton to achieve the feat, following in the footsteps of Virginia Wade, Sue Barker and, most recently, Jo Durie (August, 1984).

BEIJING, China – With her victory in the semifinals of the China Open, Great Britain’s Johanna Konta is poised to make her Top 10 debut when the WTA Rankings are updated on Monday, October 10th.

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool. But, yeah — actually I don’t know. I don’t know,” Konta laughed in her post-match press conference, at a loss for words at her achievement.

“I think because I’m so immersed in this tournament still, it’s obviously something that’s really humbling and really nice to hear.”

The 25-year-old Brit started the year with her shock run to the Australian Open semifinals and has continued to chip away at her ranking in workmanlike fashion.

She won her first title at the Bank of the West Classic, and has made the quarterfinals or better at nine events this season, including the Australian Open, Olympic tennis event, and two WTA Premier Mandatory events.

As a result, Konta will become the fourth woman to make her Top 10 debut this year after Roberta Vinci, Belinda Bencic and Madison Keys joined the club earlier in the season, as well as become the 121st woman overall to do so since the WTA Rankings were introduced on November 3, 1975.

Konta’s rise to the WTA’s Top 10 also ends a 32-year drought for British tennis; the last British woman to grace the Top 10 was Jo Durie, who made her debut the week of August 20, 1984.

Konta also adds her name to an historic and elite group, becoming just the fourth British woman to break the Top 10; only Virginia Wade (career-high of No.2), Sue Barker (career-high of No.3) and Durie (career-high of No.5) have done so previously.

In addition to entering the Top 10, Konta will move into the Top 8 on the Road to Singapore Leaderboard and is one step closer to qualifying for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.