Tennis throwback Agnieszka Radwanska cares little about her pop gun serve as she masterminds her way through the Australian Open draw.
Radwanska is the hottest player on the women’s tour entering her Open quarter-final on Tuesday against Chinese sixth seed Li Na.
The Polish fourth seed is riding a 13-match winning streak in 2013 and has already picked up titles in Auckland and Sydney.
Yet unlike the undefeated Serena Williams, who is blasting down the fastest serves in women’s history, Radwanska is dismantling her rivals one by one with an average delivery of less than 150km/h.
Despite her lofty ranking and red-hot form, the Wimbledon runner-up’s fastest serve of the tournament, a relative 169km/h rocket by her standards, doesn’t even rate among the top 50 women at the Open.
“Tennis is not about the serve only,” notes Radwanska, who has often been likened to Martina Hingis, the Swiss great who reached six successive finals in Melbourne and won three with craft and guile rarely seen in the modern power game.
But fans see it every time Radwanska takes to the court and they will do so again when the 23-year-old meets Li, another with a less then supersonic serve.
“I think in our matches it’s not about the power on the serve,” Radwanska said.
“I think we both have other shots, other type of games that we are good at.
“That’s why even against the players that are serving 200 per hour, we are still able to beat.”
Radwanska needed eight match points to beat Li last week in Sydney and is expecting another fight on Tuesday as the two square off for the right to meet second seed Maria Sharapova or fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova in Thursday’s semi-finals.
“It’s always tough against her. She’s always playing very solid tennis,” Radwanska said.
“I think I really have to play aggressive against her, definitely serve good, really playing my hundred per cent the best tennis; otherwise I’m not going to win.
“No one is unstoppable, to be honest. This is sport; this is tennis.
“But like I’m playing, it’s just a great feeling I can really play my best tennis from the beginning of the year. It’s been a great three weeks so far.”
“What can I say? I’m just very happy that I can play at the very high level. Already 13 matches not even losing a set.
“I hope I can keep going three more.”
