Fabulous is what it was. Fabulous throughout, despite a see-saw scoreline and that mid-match bagel.
Andrea Petkovic lost to Agnieszka Radwanska in their four prior meetings and said she’d need to be prepared and “a little lucky” in the Beijing final today. She wasn’t lucky, but she was as prepared as ever. It just wasn’t enough against an in-form, sometimes on-fire Radwanska, who hit 20 winners in the first set. Radwanska didn’t win a game in the second set, but she did win the match, 7-5, 0-6, 6-4, to earn her second title in two weeks and the biggest one of her career.
The first set was about Radwanska, and it didn’t feel as close as the score indicates. She won the first point with a drop-volley winner after the first of many long and lovely rallies and went on to win that game at love. The No. 11 seed was up 4-1 in the set, but things got closer after that, especially after Petkovic experienced knee discomfort. Down 3-4, Petkovic hit a forehand winner then clutched her knee in pain. She asked for a trainer, walked to her chair and had a quick cry. After getting her knee wrapped and playing tentatively at first, she didn’t seem bothered by it or, more likely, didn’t show it if she was. Radwanska won the 84-minute set—one of the best sets of women’s tennis this year—by out-playing Petkovic in several areas and making fewer errors. That’s saying a lot considering how well Petkovic played: She hit 25 winners and 17 errors—and still lost.
The ninth-seeded Petkovic walked off the court angry with herself after that set, and she threw that into her tennis in the second. It was all Petkovic, and it was as one-sided as that shutout score. Petkovic hit winners nonstop, especially off Radwanska’s serves.
They started off about even in the third set. Petkovic kept up the power, Radwanska still had her touch. In the end Petkovic got a bit tighter, Radwanska a bit steadier. But that’s all it took, and with an unreturnable first serve on her second match point, Radwanska sealed the win.
The stats, like the 154-minute match, are drop-dead gorgeous. Radwanska hit 20 more winners than errors (32 winners, 12 errors); Petkovic, who won one more point in the match (101 to 100) hit 21 more winners than errors (54 winners, 33 errors). “This really is the best of women’s tennis when you see a match being so fiercely contested,” said the Eurosport commentator. “I could do with this in the final of a Grand Slam actually.” Ditto.
After dropping out of the Top 10 earlier this year, Radwanska’s gone 24-4 since Wimbledon. She’s riding an 11-match win streak, taking the Tokyo title last week and now her seventh career title in China. Petkovic is having a great year too. She’s won 54 matches, which is more than anyone but Caroline Wozniacki—the No. 1 has won a whopping 62 matches—and is the only woman to reach the quarterfinals at three 2011 majors (all but Wimbledon).
The two hugged at the net after the match (as Petkovic held back tears) and danced together at the trophy ceremony. Come Monday, they're both projected to return to the Top 10, but it's Radwanska who now has a better shot at the final WTA Championships spot. It's a fitting reward for a woman who—though you can’t ever tell from her expressions on court—is playing some of the best tennis of her life.
—Bobby Chintapalli