Reuters
New Haven (USA), August 27: Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska put on a dominant performance against double defending champion Petra Kvitova to ease into the final of the Connecticut Open with a 6-1, 6-1 triumph here, Friday.
Kvitova, who also won the event in 2012, was looking to join Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki as four-time winners of the tournament but the sixth-seeded Czech was completely overwhelmed by the Polish World No. 4.
The two-time Wimbledon champion committed 17 unforced errors in the first set and never got into the 77-minute match. The fast-starting Radwanska won the first five games of the match and then reeled off the opening four of the second set to stay in control throughout. The Pole advances to face Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who overcame Johanna Larsson 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinal.
Larsson enjoyed an improbable run in the tournament after reaching the main draw when other players withdrew, the Swede upsetting Italy’s Roberta Vinci in the quarterfinals before coming up short against the 21-year-old Svitolina.
The 10th-seeded Svitolina shocked Serena Williams on her way to quarterfinals at the Rio Olympics and a victory in this warm-up event for next week’s US Open would be her second of the year after she triumphed in Malaysia in May.