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By Toby Davis
PARIS, June 1 (Reuters) – Third seed Agnieszka Radwanska
exited the French Open on Friday after being comprehensively
out-fought and out-manoeuvred in a straight-sets, third-round
defeat to former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.
The 26th seed, who won the 2009 title at Roland Garros, won
6-1 6-2 with a display of relentless consistency to which the
frequently wayward Radwanska had no response.
Despite her lithe frame, the Pole looked ill at ease on the
clay and lacked the all-round aggression of her Russian opponent
who broke four times to take the first set in 30 minutes.
Kuznetsova continued to punish the out-of-sorts Radwanska
breaking a further three times in the second set to close out
the match at a canter.
The Russian had beaten Radwanska in their previous five
meetings and extended her already impressive head-to-head record
to 10-3.
“It was very important to dictate, and I think I have done
it well,” the world number 28 told reporters. “I fought for
every ball against her.
“When you look at her when she plays, she doesn’t have some
great shots, like overpower.
“She moves well, she reads the game unbelievably, and she
plays on the counterattack very well.”
Radwanska, who had enjoyed an impressive start to 2012
winning titles in Dubai, Miami and Brussels, was sluggish out of
the blocks, losing her first three service games while
struggling to punish her opponent’s occasional errors.
She had chances to claw her way back into the match but
converted only two of 10 break point opportunities
“She was just playing too good today,” Radwanska told
reporters. “She’s a great player on clay, that’s for sure.
“She was just playing very aggressive on both sides. I
think she just had answer for everything that I was trying to
do.”
Kuznetsova will now face Italy’s claycourt specialist Sara
Errani who beat 13th seed Ana Ivanovic.
(Reporting by Toby Davis; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
