The consistency that Agnieszka Radwanska has displayed over the years has been incredible to see. For many years she was a regular Top 10 player and in 2012 she made her first and only Grand Slam final, where she lost to Serena Williams in three sets at Wimbledon. The Polish No.1 last dropped out of the World’s Top 15 back in Rome 2008 and after a very poor first half of the 2017 season, many are expecting her to drop outside the Top 15 for the first time in 9 years.
Radwanska is coming off another poor clay season. She has never excelled on the clay and never really has great things to say about the surface. She does not move particularly well and her ball sits up much more on the slower red clay surface in comparison to the better suited conditions of a grass court.
The World No.10’s swift loss to No.29 and lucky loser Lauren Davis was another example of her considerable decline and a dramatic dip in her consistency level.
Radwanska resumed her match at 4-5* down to the American, which was postponed due to heavy rain the night before. The Pole found a way to strike back, but would go on to lose a one-sided tiebreak to her much lower-ranked opponent.The Radwanska of old would have found a way to win these sort of matches, but the lack of movement caused her many problems. Any time that Davis attacked the backhand side of Radwanska, she often lost the point as the American capitalised on the short ball.
Even during some of Radwanska’s poor performances you would expect that her sublime anticipatory skills would still be there for all to see and that would flow smoothly into her superior movement on a grass court. But that wasn’t the case today. Lauren Davis battled harder and really demonstrated why she is a Top 30 player, despite being overwhelmingly underestimated because of her diminutive size at just 5 ft 2 inches.
One of Radwanska’s greatest strengths is being able to get that additional ball into play to try to frustrate her opponents, but it just wasn’t happening for her as she fell, 7-6, 6-1 to the American in incredibly quick fashion in the second set.
So where does Radwanska go from here? The battles with an ailing foot injury really effected her clay court swing. She pulled out of Madrid and Rome with the same problem, before deciding to take a lengthy spell to recuperate after Roland-Garros. If this foot is a persistent issue for the Pole then you could argue that it impacts her more than anyone. She relies so much on the movement and her ability to cover the court in either corner and today looked like she just couldn’t follow the lofty standards of footwork that she has shown in years that have passed.
It is a worrying time for Radwanska as in most years you would say she was a realistic contender to make an impression at the third Grand Slam of the year at Wimbledon. With no form, no matchplay and underlying issues with her health, Radwanska’s stay in the Top 10 is in real jeopardy.
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