AFP
NEW YORK, August 28
Peng Shuai allowed Chinese fans to forget the injury-enforced absence of Li Na when she stunned Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska at the US Open on Wednesday.
The 28-year-old, ranked at 39 in the world, clinched a shock 6-3, 6-4 win to clinch a fourth career victory over a top five player but first at a Grand Slam.
Peng had also defeated Radwanska, the champion in Montreal in the run-up to the tournament, at the same stage in New York in 2010. The softly-spoken Tianjin native also wiped out the misery of her last clash against the Pole when she squandered two match points in losing their fourth round encounter at the 2011 Australian Open.
Peng, who has reached six singes finals in her career but has yet to lift a title, said she had been inspired by Li Na, the Australian Open champion and 2011 French Open winner. “I have learned a lot from Li,” said Peng of her world number two compatriot who is missing from New York to nurse a knee injury.
“She is one of the best players in the world. Now I will try to keep going. There is still a lot of work to do but I want to keep enjoying my tennis.”
Despite her admiration for her compatriot, Peng, 28, has already achieved something that Li has not.
Peng sent down 28 winners on Wednesday in a gruelling clash on the Louis Armstrong Stadium which featured a series of brutal flat-hitting rallies in temperatures bursting through the 30-degree barrier.
“Radwanska is a tough player. I had to do a lot of running, but I fought,” said Peng who took victory on a third match point.
“I wanted to make it this time. I had two match points against her in 2011 in Australia and lost. This is just amazing.”
As Peng goes on to face Italian 12th seed Roberta Vinci for a place in the last 16, Radwanska was forced to contemplate another disappointing US Open.
Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova produced a gritty, three-set victory over Alexandra Dulgheru on Wednesday to reach the third round of the US Open.
The fifth-seeded Russian, one of the day’s headliners along with Australian Open winner Stan Wawrinka and five-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, kept the star-quotient up on a day that saw two-time defending women’s champion Serena Williams having a day off.
Sharapova, whose Roland Garros triumph was her fifth Grand Slam success, got off to a rocky start against Romania’s 95th-ranked Dulgheru, a former top 30 player who is trying to rebuild her career after missing a year of play after right knee surgery.
Sharapova was reluctant to blame the windy conditions in the cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium court, but the blustery weather could have been a contributing factor to her 46 unforced errors.
However, after two hours and 26 minutes on court -- in a match that began in hot sunshine and ended with the floodlights coming on -- she had her 17th three-set win of the season, the most on the WTA tour.
