By Chris Oddo | Sunday November 1, 2015
Agnieszka Radwanska survived a late push from Petra Kvitova to win her first WTA Finals in Singapore on Sunday.
Photo Source: Clive Brunskill/Getty
What started as a rout turned into a seesaw, tooth-and-nail affair. Suddenly awoken from a long slumber, Petra Kvitova swooped back into the mix and reeled off seven of eight games to put Agnieszka Radwanska on her back foot in Sunday’s WTA Finals title match.
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But Radwanska stood form, stuck with her gameplan and came away with a satisfying, well-earned, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Kvitova to claim the biggest title of her career.
“A few weeks ago I didn’t even know if I would have any chance to be here,” said Radwanska. “There you go, in the final, winning, it was an incredible day for me.”
Radwanska would storm out to an early set and a break lead and looked to be headed for an easy win, but Kvitova, the 2011 WTA Finals champion, hit a torrid stretch midway through the second set to curtail Radwanska’s plans for early celebration.
The zoning Czech began producing winners with remarkable regularity, rallying to take seven of eight games and find herself with a 2-0 lead in set three.
“A lot of ups and downs, a lot of breaks. I think in the important moments I was really doing the right things,” Radwanska said.
Radwanska, who committed just five unforced errors in the two hour and five minute match (to 53 for Kvitova), held firm and pushed back to get back on serve in set three.
Radwanska would move ahead 3-2 before giving another break to Kvitova, but the Pole rallied to take the final three games, clinching the title with a break to love.
“I had my chances in that second set but it doesn’t matter how I won I’m just happy,” Radwanska said. “It means everything. It was my first final and first win so it couldn’t be any better.”
Radwanska claims the year-end No. 5 ranking with the victory, and ties Kvitova on the WTA’s active title list with 17.
Kvitova entered the match with a 6-2 lifetime edge over Radwanska and a 17-5 career record in finals, but the rigors of a long season that included a bout with mono appeared to make difficult for her in the end.
Radwanska, the only Polish player to ever compete at the WTA Finals, had become the 16th WTA player to reach the 500-win mark earlier in the season. She also surpassed the $20 million mark in prize money earnings, becoming the 12th player to do so, and notched her 50th win of 2015. She finishes the season with 51.
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