Mattek Sands rumbles Radwanska

The upsets continued in the second round as the top players make their final preparations for the Australian Open.

(Rank/Seed)

American qualifier (48/Q) Mattek Sands upset all the odds to defeat (5/1) Radwanska 75 62, the first time since 1998 that the defending champion had lost her opening match. Though their only previous meetings had gone to 3 sets, Radwanska looked unstoppable initially. Coming in fresh off the Hopman Cup final, she won the first 11 points en route to establishing a 3-0 lead. Mattek Sands, who had already played 4 matches in Sydney already looked erratic to begin with, but gradually began to make use of her aggressive forecourt tactics. In a match featuring many extended and entertaining rallies, interspersed with net forays and drop shots (plus a 'hotdog' from Mattek Sands), the American gradually wore her opponent down, recovering from 3-5 down in the first set. Mattek Sands constantly attacked her opponents weak serve, breaking 7 times and hitting 34 winners to 39 unforced errors. Radwanska in contrast was unusually error prone, hitting 24 to only 8 winners! As Hopman Cup matches don't count on a player's record, technically Radwanska has lost her last 5 matches since Beijing last year as she failed to reach at least the quarter finals in Sydney for the first time since 2010! It was Mattek Sands second career top 5 win.

6/2 Kvitova was silky smooth in contrast, hitting 28 winners to just 12 unforced errors to demolish American, McHale 61 60 in an hour. She appears to be the favourite to win the title now if she wasn't already before!

7/3 Errani used all her experience to edge the young American qualifier, Davis 75 62 in a match that was completed by nightfall. Despite missing out on serving for the set at 5-4, Errani was often content to gradually out-rally her opponent after some lengthy exchanges.

9/5 Kerber survived her opponent's big serving (7 aces) to defeat Estonian, Kanepi 63 64.

The Czech leftie (27/-) Safarova proved that she is always a threat to the world's best as she defeated (10/6) Wozniacki 64 76(7) for a third time in six meetings. She remained patiently aggressive throughout, despite her opponents typically tenacious defending, recovering from 0-3 down in the first set and 4 set points down in the tiebreak (3 at 3-6 down). This marks a 4th time in the Dane's last 5 appearances in Sydney in which she's failed to reach the quarter finals.