BRUSSELS, May 24: World No 3 Agnieszka Radwanska and her younger sister Urszula Radwanska were a pair of second-round winners on Wednesday at the Brussels Open, a final clay-court French Open tune-up.
The top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska destroyed Ukrainian lucky-loser Lesia Tsurenko 6-1, 6-0 in 56 minutes, while an unseeded Urszula stunned second-seeded former Wimbledon runner-up Marion Bartoli of France 6-4, 6-2 at Royal Primerose Tennis Club.
“Of course Marion is a great player, but I was just focusing on my game,” Urszula said on www.wtatennis.com. “The crowd was really good to me today, it felt like I was at home. The courts are really nice and things have been going well for me.”
Also among the winners on Wednesday were fourth seed Slovak Dominika Cibulkova, Estonian Kaia Kanepi, Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova and Romanian Simona Halep.
Results (prefix number denotes seeding):Second round: Alison Van Uytvanck (Belgium) bt Chanelle Scheepers (South Africa) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; 4-Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) bt Yanina Wickmayer (Belgium) 6-3, 6-4; Urszula Radwanska (Poland) bt 2-Marion Bartoli (France) 6-4, 6-2; 1-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) bt Lesya Tsurenko (Ukraine) 6-1, 6-0; Tsvetana Pironkova (Bulgaria) bt 10-Nadia Petrova (Russia) 6-3, 6-2; 8-Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) bt Bojana Jovanovski (Serbia) 6-2, 6-2; Simona Halep (Romania) bt Monica Niculescu (Romania) 6-1, 6-1; Sofia Arvidsson (Sweden) bt Arantxa Rus (Netherlands) 6-2, 3-1 (Rus retired).
SCHIAVONE IN LAST FOUR
STRASBOURG (France): Three-time champion Anabel Medina Garrigues and second-seeded Francesca Schiavone both reached the quarter-finals of the Strasbourg International on Wednesday with contrasting wins.
The fourth-seeded Spaniard laboured to a 7-6, 7-6 win against Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei, while Schiavone swept aside Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic 6-1, 6-2.
Results:Second round: Pauline Parmentier (France) bt Stephanie Foretz (France) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3; Alexandra Panova (Russia) bt Lucie Hradecka (Czech Republic) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; 4-Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spain) bt Su-Wei Hsieh (Taiwan) 7-6 (11-9), 7-6 (7-2); Ayumi Morita (Japan) bt Virginie Razzano (France) 6-1, 6-3; Sloane Stephens (US) bt Timea Babos (Hungary) 6-2, 3-6, 6-3; Johanna Larsson (Sweden) bt 8-Tamira Paszek (Austria) 6-2, 6-0; Alize Cornet (France) bt Shahar Peer (Israel) 4-6, 6-4, 6-0; 2-Francesca Schiavone (Italy) bt Mirjana Lucic (Croatia) 6-1, 6-2.—Agencies