Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska advanced to the third round of the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday’s first Center Court match. The Wimbledon runner-up defeated Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson 6-4, 6-3 for a spot into the third round.
Up next for the Pole, who could reach the World No.1 spot if she wins at Cincinnati and New Haven next week, is wild card Sloane Stephens of the United States.
Regarding the win, Radwanska said, "Well, the first match is always the most difficult, especially, you know, every week we play on different surface and different balls and different conditions."
She continued, "But I’m just happy that I went through, especially in the two sets, because today was really, really hot."
In her match on Court 9, Stephens, a Florida native, defeated fellow wild card Camila Giorgi of Italy in straight sets. Stephens needed exactly an hour in the victory to advance to the next round, coming off a semifinal appearance at Washington.
In a post-match press conference, Stephens said, "Yeah, I played well. Yeah, the crowd was good. I just had a good day."
Venus Williams, a gold medalist at the London Olympics in doubles, also won for a spot into the round of 16. She defeated Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in front of a packed Grandstand under the heat. The seven-time major champion struck nine aces to match her career-best showing at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
The No. 4 seed Petra Kvitova notched her first win since taking the Toronto title, beating Germany’s Mona Barthel 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 in over two hours.
She expressed relief in scoring the win. "I'm really glad that I'm a fighter again and I won again from not a very much nice score on the scoreboard," she said. "Yeah, I'm really glad that I'm through."
Former World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki raced through her match against qualifier Sesil Karatantcheva. She lost just one game to claim her victory in 59 minutes.
The No. 17 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won over Julia Goerges of Germany 6-3, 6-0. The Russian capitalized on six of 12 break point chances en route to making the third round. In 2010, she made a run to the semifinals at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
China’s Peng Shuai came out on top in her match against Roberta Vinci, following a victory over the 2011 Western & Southern Open runner-up Jelena Jankovic on Monday night.
In other results from the day, Roland Garros runner-up Sara Errani beat Daniela Hantuchova in straight sets and qualifier Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic advanced when the No. 11 seed Dominika Cibulkova retired, trailing 7-6(1), 4-1.
Another qualifier, Urszula Radwanska, the younger sister of Agnieszka, also made it to the round of 16 due to retirement when Yaroslava Shvedova halted play while trailing 4-1 in the second set.