Safarova sails past Radwanska to reach Round 3 at Wimbledon

LONDON, Great Britain - Lucie Safarova ended the resurgent Agnieszka Radwanska’s Wimbledon run in the second round, emerging victorious in straight sets.  

After saving six match points in her last match against Elena-Gabriela Ruse, Radwanska couldn’t come up with the same magic to pull of another escape act, falling to Safarova 7-5, 6-4 in an hour and 40 minutes.

The Pole’s vulnerable serve was under fire from the start, with Safarova bringing up four break points in her first two service games and pushing her to deuce in a third one. Radwanska held two sets points on the Safarova serve at 5-4, but the Czech came back to deny her and finally broke through to take the set.

Safarova got off to a flying start in the second, reeling off four games in a row to open up a 4-0 double break lead. Radwanska didn’t stay down, though, and she broke Safarova as she was serving for the match at 5-3.

Radwanska denied Safarova a match point in a marathon, 11-minute final game and had seven chances to break her, but Safarova held firm to close out the match and extend her record over Radwanska to 5 wins to 1.  

An even tougher test lies ahead for Safarova, who reached the semifinals here in 2014. She will face the winner between World No.2 Caroline Wozniacki or dangerous floater Ekaterina Makarova.

More to follow...