“I don’t want to call Agnieszka Radwanska a tortoise,” the TennisTV announcer said in the middle of the third set, “but often the tortoise wins in the end.”
It was steady versus streaky in the first semifinal in Dubai today. Steady, as always, was Radwanska: She won the first set 6-2, lost the second by the same score, and then blanked her opponent 6-0 in the third, all while maintaining the same generally high level of play. Streaky was her opponent, Jelena Jankovic: After a passive first set, JJ broke loose in the second with 16 winners, only to see all of her sweet shots turn sour in the third. To give you an idea of how drastically her fortunes changed, at one stage of the second set, Jankovic won 11 of 12 points; at one stage of the third, she lost three straight games at love.
On the surface, you might think that Radwanska just waited Jankovic out, that the match was all on JJ’s racquet. But that wasn’t exactly the case; Radwanska gave this roller-coaster a subtle but definite nudge down the track. Up 1-0 at the start of the third set but down 40-15 on Jankovic’s serve, Aga took hold of a midcourt forehand and won the point with it. That may not sound like a big deal, but it was the first time in nearly eight games that Radwanska had done anything proactive—she had been in full retrieval mode for at least half an hour.
That forehand had an immediate effect on both players. At 40-30, Radwanska tracked down a JJ volley and hit her best shot of the match, a stinging crosscourt backhand pass while running the other way. Jankovic slumped at the net; the wind, we would soon find out, was out of her sails. She double-faulted on the next two points to be broken. She wouldn’t win another game.
This was the Radwanska we saw during her Asian tour de force last fall, making balls and subtly dictating when needed. In fact, she made so many balls early that she helped play her opponent into a groove. Too bad for JJ, the hare in this story: Her 16 winners might have been enough to win an entire match against another player; all it got her against Radwanska was a set. She played well enough in the second, particularly with her vintage down the backhand, to remind us of her when she was at her best a few years ago. In the third, though, Jankovic couldn’t find any more openings; Aga had closed them all down. The commentator today was right, you can’t call Radwanska a tortoise. She’s steady, but she certainly isn’t slow.
—Steve Tignor