Beijing, Oct 9: Agnieszka Radwanska is seeking her second title in two weeks after reaching the final of the China Open, where she will take on Andrea Petkovic.
In the men's draw, Marin Cilic progressed to Sunday's final with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Ivan Ljubicic. Cilic will face the winner of Saturday's remaining semifinal between top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France and third-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.
Radwanska, the winner of last week's Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, beat Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-4, to improve her career record against the Italian to 3-1.
“I knew she'd been playing well the last couple of weeks so I was really focusing on my game from the beginning,” Radwanska said. “I was just happy to close this game in two sets.”
The Polish player has won her four previous meetings with Petkovic, including twice this year, but Radwanska said she wasn't expecting an easy time on Sunday.
“It's always very tough and very tight against Andrea,” the 11th-seeded Radwanska said. “She's playing very well, very consistent. I think I'll have to play even better than today to beat her tomorrow.”
Earlier in the day, ninth-seeded Petkovic downed Monica Niculescu 6-2, 6-0.
Petkovic said she drew confidence from her increasingly steady performances, having reached the quarterfinals at each of this year's Australian, French and U.S. Opens. Saturday's win marked her first victory in three meetings with the Romanian.
“I was really satisfied with the intensity and the focus I managed to have with each and every point and I think that made the difference today,” the German said.
Cilic continued his recent run of good form in a match between the big-hitting Croats that featured a combined 22 aces.
“Today was a really tough match, especially that first set,” Cilic said. “You could feel the tension in the air.”
Winning against the player who beat him in the first round at Wimbledon was a further confidence boost, he said.
“That means a lot, that I can beat those guys and my tennis is at a good level and on a level that's high enough to play against those guys and beat them,” Cilic said. AP
