By Chris Oddo Photo Credit: Julian Finney/Getty Images
World No. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska has no time for sleep, not when she's playing this well. Just hours after winning the Dubai title and reaching a career-high ranking, Radwanska was on a plane to Kuala Lumpur, after accepting a late wildcard into the draw.
After Venus Williams pulled out of the hard court event last week, Radwanska's decision is great news for fans attending the BMW Malaysian Open -- and it's great news for the red-hot Radwanska too. "Everything is pretty last minute," Radwanska told the WTA yesterday, "but I think it's a pretty good problem."
Radwanska, who is 15-3 on the season with her only three losses coming to world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, is joined by No. 2-seeded Jelena Jankovic and No. 3-seeded Shuai Peng in the draw, as well as another well known wild card, world No. 43 and No. 4-seeded Jarmila Gajdasova.
Also looking to make some noise in the Malaysian capital are defending champion Jelena Dokic, Japanese No. 1 Ayumi Morita, and promising French 18-year-old Caroline Garcia, who was tabbed as a potential WTA ringer by Martina Navratilova and future No. 1 by Andy Murray after she nearly defeated Maria Sharapova at the French Open last year.
Results from day 1:
Singles:
O. Rogowska d. E. Kostova 6-4, 6-0
(7) J. Dokic d. K. Mladenovic 6-3, 6-1
(5) P. Martic d. E. Sema 4-6, 6-4, 7-5
K. Nara d. N. Lertcheewakarn 6-4, 6-3
M. Doi d. (w) O. Putchkova 4-6, 6-1, 6-2
Doubles:
(1) Dellacqua/ Gajdasova d. Bremond/ S. Zheng 6-1, 3-6, 11-9
K. Chang/ C. Chuang d. S. Aoyama/ C. Chan 3-6, 6-2, 10-8
W. Liu/ Y. Chu d. W. Hsu/ J. Lu 6-1, 6-3