News | WTA Tennis English
MELBOURNE, Australia – Mirjana Lucic-Baroni caused the biggest upset of this year’s Australian Open by knocking out No.3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round.
In little over an hour on Margaret Court Arena, Lucic-Baroni struck 33 winners to complete a 6-3, 6-2 victory and set up a third-round meeting with another unseeded player, Maria Sakkari.
Lucic-Baroni will turn 35 in March and last progressed beyond the first round at Melbourne Park in 1998. However, even after dropping serve at the start of the second set, she refused to be derailed, reeling off the next six games to seal victory, and hand Radwanska her earliest loss at Melbourne Park in eight years.
Mirjana #LucicBaroni has that winning #AusOpen feeling in 2R pic.twitter.com/i3WQOQLBTS
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 19, 2017
A one-time teenage prodigy, Lucic-Baroni has returned to the limelight in recent years, winning a third career title at Québec City in 2014, and upsetting Simona Halep at the French and US Opens. These performances have imbued the Croat with the confidence that on her day she can compete with the game’s best.
“That was my first big win in a while and it was a shock,” Lucic-Baroni said when asked about her win over Halep at the 2014 US Open. “I know I have some good tennis in me still, that’s the reason I’m still out here playing at 34 – I’m no spring chicken – to get these moments and these feelings. It was really fun tonight.
“I know that I have the game to win a big match. I didn’t go in there to see a big court, I went in with a gameplan. I’ve been around too long to just gain experience.”
Like Halep, Radwanska proved powerless in the face of a barrage of winners, responding with just eight of her own.
“There’s not a lot I could do; she’s playing without pressure, full power. It’s hard to comment because it all went so fast,” Radwanska said in her press conference. “It’s always disappointing when you lose in the first week of a Grand Slam. I need to come back next year and do better.”
Lucic-Baroni now faces Sakkari, another player appearing at this stage of the tournament for the first time.
“I don’t feel like I’m that old. I’ve missed a few years on tour, but this time around I don’t have anything to prove, I’m just enjoying myself, playing for myself. I’m enjoying it, enjoying the moments and just trying to go as far as I can,” Lucic-Baroni added.