Unheralded journeyman Grzegorz Panfil has pulled off the biggest win of his career, overcoming a rankings gap of 277 places to stun world No.11 Milos Raonic 7-6(1) 6-3 to hand Poland a surprise 2-0 victory over Canada.
“I’m really surprised, it was my best match in my career so I’m really happy and back into Australia after six years. I’m really happy to be here, yeah I still can’t believe it,” a beaming Panfil said.
“I was so so focused on every point. I was serving really good, much better than yesterday … I was trying to play like always my best tennis. The serve’s were pretty good and my forehand as well.”
On the back of an easy win over Flavia Pennetta on Saturday, Radwanska’s testing encounter was the perfect preparation ahead of the Australian Open.
‘I think so, yes of course, I think every match is a great practice between playing points and playing a real match. [It] is a great warm-up before Sydney and Melbourne. So I’m very happy I could play another good match and I’m ready for the next one,” the world No.5 said.
Having taken four games on the run, Bouchard faltered while trying to serve out the set and quickly found herself down 4-1 in the tiebreak as Radwanska drilled the lines.
However, the WTA Newcomer of the Year for 2013 would rally once more, saving three match points and clinching the set with an overhead putaway to force the decider.
“Yes well in the first set I was 3-1 down and then I came back with three … I think this is just women’s tennis, you know everything changes all the time and of course 4-1 … so a lot of opportunities that I missed and of course I paid the price by losing the set,” Radwanska said.
For Bouchard the disappointment at having fought back to force a decider was obvious.
“I felt like I didn’t really play well in the first so I lost quite a few games in a row so I was happy to try turn that around at least and make it a match, so I got a little tired at the end and she kept her level up,” Bouchard said.
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