Radwanska, Halep Sent Packing At Roland Garros
Two of the French Open’s top six seeds were ousted from the tournament on Tuesday morning, as second-seed Agnieszka Radwanska and sixth-seed Simona Halep both lost their respective fourth-round matches.
After play was suspended on Sunday due to rain, Radwanska began Tuesday with a commanding 6-2, 3-0 lead over Tsvetana Pironkova, a player ranked 100 spots below her. But Pironkova must have made some adjustments in that time off, as she opened play by winning 10 straight games to win the second set and open up a 4-0 lead in the deciding third set.
Radwanska forged a slight comeback when she trimmed the deficit to 3-4 in the third set, but that was all she was able to muster up. Pironkova would go on to close things out for the 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory.
Pironkova is the first Bulgarian into the French Open quarterfinals in a decade.
She will take on 21st seed Samantha Stosur in the final eight. Stosur completed a comeback of her own against sixth-seed Simona Halep. When play resumed on Tuesday, Stosur trailed Halep 3-5 in the opening set, but the Australian forged a comeback to force a tiebreaker.
She would win all seven points in the breaker, and converted on her only break point chance in the second set to complete the 7-6(0), 6-3 victory.
Stosur leads the head to head series 3-1 against Pironkova, but the two have never played on clay.
