An emotional Agnieszka Radwanska claimed her maiden WTA Finals title with a roller-coaster 6-2 4-6 6-3 victory over Czech Petra Kvitova in an absorbing encounter at a packed Singapore Indoor Stadium yesterday.
Playing a first final in her seventh appearance at the season-ending event, the sixth-ranked Pole also created history by becoming the first woman to lift the title after completing round robin play with a 1-2 record.
“A few weeks ago I didn’t even know I would be here,” a tearful Radwanska said in a courtside interview.
“I was doing the right thing in the important moments of a really close match, I had my chances in the second set but it doesn’t really matter how I won,” the Pole added.
In stark contrast to her semifinal victory over Maria Sharapova, Kvitova made a lacklustre start to the match with a sloppy opening service game, handing her opponent an immediate break as she got off to the worst possible start.
The Czech appeared a little more animated in the second game and despite working a few openings, poor shot selection and a string of unforced errors enabled the world No 6 to survive the threat and move 2-0 ahead.
The double Wimbledon champion finally got on the scoreboard in the third game thanks to a pair of aces but unable to make any inroads on the Radwanska serve, the Czech recorded her third double-fault in as many games to cough up yet another break.
Exuding confidence, Radwanska breezed through her next service game and was able to wrap up a dominant set in 33 minutes with another routine hold.
Radwanska carried that momentum into the first game of the second set, running down everything and breaking the Czech with an unreturnable backhand volley at the net and consolidating her advantage with a solid hold to win her third game in a row.
Kvitova, who continues to battle mononucleosis, stopped the rot to claim her first game of the second set, screeching in delight at a forehand winner as she attempted to stir herself into action.
Her efforts bore fruit three games later when the powerful left-hander forged her first break point of the contest and levelled at 3-3 with a booming crosscourt forehand winner.
