Agnieszka Radwanska blames conditions for shock exit

World No 3 Agnieszka Radwanska blamed blustery conditions for her shock 6-4, 6-1 second-round defeat to Flavia Pennetta at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships at Dubai Tennis Stadium on Wednesday.

Radwanska who had a first-round bye added that Pennetta had the advantage having been able to acclimatise after passing three stages of qualifying even before her 7-5, 6-4 first-round win over Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi on Tuesday.

Pennetta, who reached the semi-final of the US Open last year, now faces the World No 44 Venus Williams in the quarter-final after the veteran American overcame Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-1 in Wednesday’s second round.To get this far, Pennetta had to win three stages of qualification last weekend against Slovakia’s Kristina Kucova 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva 7-6(3), 6-0 and Germany’s Yvonne Meusburger 6-1, 6-3.

Germany’s Annika Beck fell to a 6-4, 6-4 second-round defeat to Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, while the Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova and the Ukraine’s Maryna Zanevska both fell to respective first-round defeats to Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens 6-1, 7-5 and Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, 6-4, 6-3.