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Radwanska secures Auckland title

Radwanska secures Auckland title
Photograph Copyright : Getty Images

Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska is the 2013 ASB Classic singles champion after beating Yanina Wickmayer on Saturday.

World No 4 Radwanska came through a gruelling final against 2010 champion Wickmayer to win on her first appearance in the tournament at Auckland's ASB Tennis Arena.

The 23-year-old Pole beat Wickmayer 6-4 6-4 in one hour and 37 minutes, breaking the Belgian twice in the second set to kick the year off in winning fashion.

A losing finalist at Wimbledon in 2012, the victory provided her with a massive confidence boost ahead of the Australian Open in a week's time.

Ranked No 23 in the world, Wickmayer made a commanding start, holding her opponent to love in the opening game but fell behind 3-1 shortly after.

Clearly the aggressor of the two, Wickmeyer's superior backhand proved deadly and saw her come out on top of some intense rallies - with 12 winners in total - to level at 4-4.

However, with a mammoth 26 unforced errors in the first set alone the Belgian's impatience became the crack, in an otherwise solid performance, which Radwanska exploited.

Handing the ball back to frustrate her opponent with longer rallies, Radwanska won the ensuing two games and the set.

A determined Wickmeyer broke the top-seed early in the second for a 2-0 lead, but again invited pressure with unforced errors - 49 in total and four double faults - as Radwanska broke her serve twice more to take a 5-3 lead.

Even then the No 23 would not go down without a fight and after pulling back to 5-4 she had a chance to level once again but blew two break points then committed the final error which cost her a second title on New Zealand soil.

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