Saturday, May 26, 2012

Radwanska and Schiavone win pre-French Open tournaments

Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska won the Brussels Open today, and while much of the final wasn't pretty, a lot of it was very entertaining. It isn't often that Radwanska can look on the other side of the net and think she's peering into a mirror, but finalist Simona Halep can dip and glide and construct clay court transitions Radwanska-style.

In true clay court fashion, there were seven breaks of serve in the first set, which Radwanska finally won, 7-5. Halep's leg, which has been bothering all week, probably caused some of her collaps in the second set, but Radwanska also cut down the errors, and won every game.

The Brussels championship gives Radwanska three premier titles for this season, and a total of ten WTA singles titles.

4th seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sania Mirza won the doubles title. They defeated 3rd seeds Alicja Rosolska and Zheng Jie 6-3, 6-2.

In Strasbourg, the sleeping Italian giant was finally awakened; 2nd seed Francesca Schiavone won her first title in two years by defeating wild card Alize Cornet 6-4, 6-4 in the final. The doubles title went to 2nd seeds Olga Govortsova and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik. They defeated top seeds Natalie Grandin and Vladimira Uhllirova 6-7, 6-3, 10-3.

Depending on how you look at it, making a run to the final in either Brussels or Strasbourg right before the French Open begins could be an exhausting--and therefore bad--move, or it could be a confidence-builder. Radwanska has been a very hot player on the tour for several months, though few would pick her to win in Paris. Schiavone's career has tumbled considerably since her two straight runs to the French Open final (she won the title in 2010), but, really, who is going to give the big-hearted Italian no chance at all?

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