Mason, OH (Sports Network) - Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska, last week's
Montreal champion Petra Kvitova and American favorite Venus Williams posted
second-round victories Wednesday at the WTA's $2.168 million Western &
Southern Open.
The Polish world No. 3 Radwanska, who was last month's Wimbledon runner-up to
Serena Williams, handled Swede Sofia Arvidsson 6-4, 6-3, while a fourth-seeded
Kvitova came from behind to best German Mona Barthel 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 on the
hardcourts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. The 2011 Wimbledon champion
Kvitova is only three days removed from securing her first title of 2012.
Up next for Radwanska will be rising American Sloane Stephens, while the Czech
slugger Kvitova will take on China's Peng Shuai.
The former world No. 1 Venus, a wild card this week, fought back to beat South
African Chanelle Scheepers, 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, while seventh-seeded French Open
runner-up Sara Errani of Italy took care of veteran Slovak Daniela Hantuchova,
6-4, 6-4. Venus will battle Errani on Thursday.
In other action involving seeds, Czech qualifier Andrea Hlavackova defeated
No. 11 Slovak Dominika Cibulkova 7-6 (7-1), 4-1, retired, and No. 17 Russian
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova whipped German Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-0.
Stephens pasted Italian and fellow wild card Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-1; Peng
bested Italian Roberta Vinci 6-3, 6-4; Russian Ekaterina Makarova drilled
Georgian lucky-loser Anna Tatishvili 6-1, 6-2; and Urszula Radwanska beat
Kazakhstanian and fellow qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova 4-6, 4-1, retired.
The Sports Network