Agnieszka Radwanska reaches the final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships

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  • World No6 Agnieszka Radwanska put to bed an attempted comeback from Jelena Jankovic to reach her first ever final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

    The athletic 22-year-old from Poland put in a brilliant third set display to finish off Jankovic 6-2, 2-6, 6-0 in one hour 43 minutes.

    Radwanska drew first blood when she broke the No8 seed, who netted and easy backhand to go down 0-2.

    Although Jankovic broke back immediately, Radwanska again edged in front and consolidated to lead 4-1 and the No5 seed broke again in the eighth game courtesy of another unforced error from the Serb to take the first set in 39 minutes.

    A resurgent Jankovic started strong in the second set ripping the ball to race to a 3-0 lead with two breaks of serve.

    A sublime backhand down-the-line winner from Radwanska saw her a break back to improve to 1-3 but it wasn’t enough to halt the barrage of big groundstrokes from Jankovic who broke again and held until the end of the set, which she took with a smashing overhead.

    An inexplicable dip in form in the final set from the former finalist though saw Radwanska serve up a bagel, with Jankovic failing to win a single point on the Pole’s serve.

    “She just started to play much better in the second set. I was really in trouble. She was really hitting the ball very well,” said Radwanska – a semi-finalist in Dubai in 2010.

    “But in the third set I was just trying to be focused on my game and just fight until the end.

    “But I think also the second game of this third set was the key because I think I really got more confident after that and I think she got a bit angry.”

    Dubai-resident Jankovic had split her two previous meetings with Radwanska but the Serb has more experience on Centre Court at the Dubai Tennis Stadium, where she made the finals in 2005 and the semi-finals in 2007, 2008 and 2011.

    “I’m just so happy especially that I know that Jelena has had great results here,” added Radwanska.

    “I knew it was going to be very tough, but also happy that I played much better than the other days.”

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