As Agnieszka Radwanska sat in her press conference, post first-round loss to #69th Annika Beck at Roland Garros two weeks ago, the questions kept pouring in about her lackluster 2015. The former world #2 sat there hunched, uninterested, waiting for the next reporter to ask her about her disappointing season; her eyes unamused, but genuine, trained, like a well-advised politician, mid election, deflecting the negative questions by focusing on the future. Her typical response was to spin that her game was coming together, and she was looking forward to the upcoming grass court season.
She should look forward to it. Of Radwanska’s successes, most of her Slam success has been found on the slick, low-bouncing plays of the Wimbledon grass. Grass has always been a surface that rewarded bravery and guile, two things that Radwanska has always had a plethora of (not to mention deathly drop shots, precision lobs, and an ability to use an opponents pace to create ridiculously flat-angled ground strokes). Of the three times that Radwanska has made it past the quarterfinals of a Slam, two of those times have been at Wimbledon, including the 2012 final where she pushed Serena Williams to three sets before ultimately succumbing to the champion.
Despite grass court success and the lofty rankings she held in 2012 and 2013, Radwanska’s game has struggled over the past 18 months. Where she once seemed to hold to a strict game plan in each match–using her court coverage, her ability to transition from defense to offense quickly, and her ability to drop/lob her way through a set, she has recently seemed more confused on the court. With so many pundits discussing her need to be more offensive if she desired to win the major tourneys and stay in the top 5, she adopted such a style. She even brought on Martina Navritilova as a consultant and coach this season, but looked even more confused on the court after this brief coaching experiment. Navritilova’s desire for Radwanska to approach the net more never panned out, as Radwanska often looked rushed as she forced her way to the net, her groundstrokes lacking the power necessary to approach comfortably. Out of the eleven tournaments Radwanska has played this year, she has only made it past the 2nd round in three of those. She also lost both her Davis Cup matches against Russia; her WTA Ranking has dropped outside the Top 10 to 13th, and it is likely to sink even further if she is unable to defend her grass court season points.
The grass does bring hope though for Radwanska. In her quarterfinal match of the Aegon Nottingham Open on Friday against the quick and crafty Lauren Davis, Radwanska looked much like the former #2 player in the world, the woman who reached the Wimbledon final in 2012. Radwanska was relaxed, calm, and in utter control. At 2-all in the second set (for example) she deftly looped Davis wide into the deuce court, then drop-shotted Davis’ retrieval into the ad court, then half-volleyed a lob over Davis’ desperate heave back into the deuce court for a winner. The ability to user her precision and touch to play her opponents like a yo-yo is the style of tennis that moved Radwanska so high in the rankings. The confidence to execute this feel and touch has been missing in her game this year. However, even for all the promise she showed at Aegon, the demons of 2015 raised their ugly heads in her semifinal match against Monica Niculescu. Seemingly in control of the match after winning the first set, and breaking back in the second to make it 5-5, Radwanska lost eight straight games, leading to a bagel loss in the 3rd set. During those games, she seemed hesitant to use her drop shots, and had moments where she simply couldn’t even return a serve with any amount of pace or direction. Her serve was ineffective as she only won 42% of her first serve points, and a mere 17% of her second serves. She applied no pressure to the Romanian throughout the set, never recovering from the disappointing second set, winning only 12 points in the 3rd.
Though disjointed and sporadic, Radwanska’s skills and weapons are still present in her game, as she demonstrated this week in her run to the semifinals. The question will be whether this semifinal run helps build her confidence toward even more success this grass court season, or whether the memories of the 3rd set loss to Niculescu and other sets like that one will continue to bog down her game and on court performance, keeping her from reclaiming her spot as one of the women’s tour’s most important players.
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