Radwanska Beats Stephens for Spot in Eastbourne Finals
Ninth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska from Poland defeated American Sloane Stephens 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-2 on Friday to reach the Aegon International Championship.
After cruising in the first set, Radwanska had a chance to serve out the match while up 6-5 in the second set. But Stephens hung tough and broke back to force the set into a tiebreaker, eventually winning that to force a deciding third set.
But Radwanska, who won this title back in 2008, was too strong in the final set. She gave herself seven break point chances, converting on three of them, and closed out the match on her second match point.
“First of all, I’m just very, very happy to be in the final again, it’s been a while since 2008,” said Radwanska. “Playing with the wind is probably the most difficult for the players, and it was blowing strongly pretty much the whole match. The match was up and down throughout, so I had to fight for each ball because she was playing great. I had some chances in the second set but she was just too good in the important moments and I’m just glad to finish the match in three sets.”
In the final, Radwanska will take on Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, who led 3-0 over second-seed Caroline Wozniacki before the Dane retired with a back injury.
“It’s a little bit of an awkward situation. Of course I’m happy to be in the final, but it’s not the way I wanted to go through. I hope Caroline is okay for Wimbledon,” Bencic said. “I think my serve has been working very well these past few weeks. This is really important on grass and I also think I’m playing better on the important points—I’m not scared and I go for my shots.”
