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Radwanska beats Ivanovic at Aus Open

By Chris Pike
20 January 2013 10:30PM EST

POLISH world No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska won her 13th straight match this summer beating Ana Ivanovic on Sunday night in straight-sets to advance to the Australian Open quarter finals.

Radwanska began her 2013 season by winning two singles titles at Auckland and Hobart leading into the Australian Open, and now in Melbourne she has beaten Australia's Bojana Bobusic 7-5, 6-0, Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3, 6-3, Brit Heather Watson 6-3, 6-1 and now Ivanovic 6-2, 6-4.

The fourth-seed is yet to drop a set in her first four rounds and has conceded just 21 games on her way into the quarter finals where she will take on No. 6 seed and 2011 French Open champion Li Na with a semi-final berth up for grabs.

Radwanska was always going to receive her biggest test of the summer so far up against the former world No. 1 and Grand Slam winner Ivanovic, with the Serb 13th seed having little trouble getting into the fourth round after wins over Melinda Czink, Yung-Jan Chan and compatriot Jelena Jankovic.

However, Radwanska had little trouble cruising to the straight-sets victory in just an hour and 10 minutes.

The Pole served seven aces to Ivanovic's two, no double faults to four and most remarkably of all hit just four unforced errors for the entire match.

Ivanovic didn’t play a bad game and hit 35 winners herself and just 34 unforced errors, but with Radwanska constantly getting the ball back into the court she was too much for the Serb to handle.

Radwanska has won 12 WTA singles titles, which includes the two at the start of 2013, but is yet to have a Grand Slam to her credit and based on current form this Australian Open could very well be her best chance.

Her best result was making the final at last year's Wimbledon and outside of that she has never advanced past the quarter finals at any of the four majors, but the 23-year-old is happy with how her game is going at the moment.

"I'm just happy that I could play my best tennis again. I was feeling very good today and I'm happy that I'm in the quarter-final again here," Radwanska said.

"She (Ivanovic) started to play a lot more aggressive in the second set with some good volleys as well and she was moving very well, so there were some tight and long games but in the important moments I was very focused. I'm happy that I closed this match in two sets."

Radwanska and Li will now meet in the quarter finals in what will be the 10th meeting on the WTA Tour between the pair. Li leads the head to head battle five to four, but Radwanska won the last meeting earlier this year at the Sydney International 6-3, 6-4.

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