Polish Champ Wins WTA

Poland has been unable to produce a tennis champion in more than two decades. This is about to change. On Sunday, Agnieszka Radwańska became the first singles Polish tennis player to win the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in Stockholm. The singles player defeated Russia’s Vera Dushevina in the final winning 6-1 6-1, leaving with a tidy sum of $145,000 in prize money. The Tier IV event has earned Radwańska the Nordea Nordic Light Open title.

The opening set was quickly over in 26 minutes with Radwańska losing only seven points in the first five games. With just 31 minutes into the second set, the final was won in a whitewash in the last game. This victory places Radwanska 33rd in the Women’s Tennis Association ranking, an impressive climb from being outside the Top 300 ranking when she entered the professional circuit in 2006.

Radwańska told WTA she is very happy with winning such a tournament, claiming, “It is a big step going higher in the rankings. Every Top 100 player has good strokes, you really have to have something special in order to compete at this level. Earning the Tour’s Newcomer of the Year Award in Miami earlier this year, Radwanska has been quickly dubbed by the Association as “the one to watch.” And the place to do that will be at the New Haven tour in the U.S., followed by the Grand Slam U.S. Open commencing with the first round on August 27.

The last singles Polish tennis player of noteworthy status was Wojciech Fibiak. He attained a No. 7 ranking in 1980, reaching the quarter finals in the French Open, the U.S. Open and in Wimbledon. Poland hopes that Radwańska can improve on that statistic and improve the general appreciation of tennis in Poland. If she does, maybe the country will all be lucky enough to catch some tennis footage of the Grand Slam tournaments on public television.