A stress fracture in her foot forced Agnieszka Radwanska to pull the plug on her 2010 season. A back injury prompted her to receive treatment in the third set against Kimiko Date-Krumm today. But neither of those ailments prepared the No. 12 seed from Poland for the shock of suddenly losing her head late in the third set.
Radwanska stepped into a backhand return at 6-5 in the final set, swung her blue Babolat racquet and watched wide-eyed as the head and throat of her fractured frame flew right off the handle like a Frisbee fleeing from a picnic. Radwanska was left holding about six inches of handle that remained from the ruptured racquet while wearing the perplexed look of a kid whose kite had floated away.
She held the handle for several seconds, then refused to relinquish her grip on the lead. Rallying from a double break down in the final set, Radwanska roared back to subdue the 40-year-old Date-Krumm, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in a two hour, 34-minute clash featuring 17 service breaks.
Contesting her 10th career Australian Open, Date-Krumm relied on her fitness, flat strokes and an unerring belief that no ball was beyond her reach to take an early third-set advantage, but her game began to disintegrate after Radwanska' injury timeout. Date-Krumm was feeling it physically; her green adidas outfit was soaked with sweat from her match's worth of labor. In contrast, Radwanska, clad in a simple, clean white top and black skirt, did not look physically taxed despite the strained back. Trying to take away her opponent's angles by driving the ball deep down the middle, Date-Krumm sailed several shots long, and when she missed the mark on a forehand, Radwanska registered her first win since last September.
The 2008 Australian Open quarterfinalist will play 140th-ranked Croatian Petra Martic for a spot in the third round. Though Radwanska, who owns the smooth style, subtle skill set and shrewd court sense that recalls Martina Hingis at times, lacks a powerful finishing shot, she is a highly-accurate player adept at taking the ball early and creating space for her shots. If her back holds up—and her frame keeps its head on straight—Radwanska could take advantage of a soft part of the draw and get to 24th-seeded Russian Alisa Kleybanova in the third round. That match would pit the pure power of Kleybanova against Radwanska's controlled counter-punching.
—Richard Pagliaro