Centre Court at the All England Club evokes many emotional memories for Radwanska. The setting for her most triumphant performance when she became the first Polish player of the Open era to reach a Grand Slam final in 2012, it was also the venue for one of her most bittersweet career matches when Sabine Lisicki claimed last year’s superb semi-final 9-7 in the third set.
There would be no such emotional extremes for Radwanska today but rather a pleasing sense of accomplishment as she completed a 6-4, 6-0 win over Casey Dellacqua. “It’s always great to be out there, especially here what I really have the best memories on the Grand Slam,” she later related. “I was really looking forward to being in the Centre Court again.” Although perhaps not spending too much time there. Competing with brutal efficiency, Radwanska took just 56 minutes to progress, her 'get the job done' approach soon evident in the round two encounter. Early in the third game of the first set, she slipped on the baseline only to calmly pick herself up and return the next ball for a winner, perhaps symbolising her approach to the Grand Slam that has provided the best results of her near 10-year career. That early fall wasn’t the only lapse Radwanska would have to navigate against Dellacqua, who has risen from outside the top 200 last September to world No. 36 in the latest WTA rankings. The 29-year-old Australian showed the spirit that has driven her career comeback when she was down two service breaks in the first set, winning four consecutive games to force Radwanska to fight for another break of serve to close out the set. But navigating that challenge simply freed the crafty Radwanska up to play her best tennis in the second set. The errors (she had eight in total compared to Dellacqua’s 22) became less noticeable and the winners (19 for the match) more entertaining, with the only disappointment for the enraptured crowd the fact that it was over in 22 minutes.
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