Radwanska At Peace On Grass
The grass court season has been a time of respite and opportunity for Agnieszka Radwanska. This year she comes into Wimbledon with less pause and more purpose. The World No.3 limited her clay court schedule this year, an aggressive signal that the 27-year-old is more about quality than quantity these days. Her focus now is to take advantage of the surface that has always been good to her.
The 2012 Wimbledon finalist has made the semifinals or better at two of her last three trips to the All England Club. While she grew up playing on fake grass back home in Poland, she did not step foot on the real thing until 2005. That year she would go on to win Junior Wimbledon.
“I was really comfortable on that from the first day,” Radwanska said. “Since then I had this feeling I feel really good on the surface. I feel really comfortable and I can do whatever I want there. It hasn’t changed since then.”
Heading into Wimbledon, Radwanska has played 10 events this year (including Fed Cup), four fewer than in each of her last two seasons and her fewest since 2011. And yet she’s in the midst of one of her strongest 12-month runs, winning four tournaments, including the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, and making the Australian Open semifinals.
“If you ask me five years ago I would say, Yeah, it’s very scary [to play less] and I would feel weird not to play hundred matches,” Radwanska said. “Here it’s a different story.
“Every year you have a different experience and now when you’re older then you really have to think [about] it twice. So I really feel much better. It’s still not over, it’s just half the season. There’s still a few months to go with the Olympics and two Grand Slams so you you really need to think about the whole season.”
As a result, Radwanska has been the healthiest she’s ever been at this point of the season. As she joked in Paris, she’s not being held together by tape and she’s been able to play freely without much concern. This week she’s already into the quarterfinals at the Aegon International, where she was finalist last year, and will go into Wimbledon with a few quality matches under her belt. Regardless of whether she wins the title in Eastbourne, Radwanska has rediscovered her comfort level on grass.
“Sometimes I lost in the first round at Eastbourne and then I made the finals and semifinals at Wimbledon, not once but three times,” she said. “But I really want to take advantage of the fact that I really like grass. It’s good to have a couple matches before the Grand Slams.”
Click here to read more about this year’s Wimbledon Contenders, courtesy of WTA Insider.
