Impressive wins by Thomas Enqvist and the mixed doubles pair of Venus Williams and Feliciano Lopez helped Bangalore Raptors take a 15-12 lead over Pune Marathas in their Champions Tennis League tie here today.
After losing the first two matches, Pune kept their hopes alive as Agnieszka Radwanka, currently ranked sixth in the world, defeated former women's world number one American Williams 6-3 at the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association Stadium.
The American had herself to blame as she could not break the young Polish player.
Both Radwanska and Williams held their serves until the Polish broke the American in the eighth game. Williams also had a wonderful chance of breaking Radwanska, but failed, as she committed crucial unforced errors, hitting into the net and smashing out.
Radwanska fought her way back in the ninth game, from 0-40 down, to pocket the game and the match. She played cleverly and made Williams run around and forced her opponent to play to her strengths.
Enqvist regaled the spectators with his familiar shots and took an early 2-1 lead after he broke Australia's Pat Cash in the singles legends' clash. Enqvist did not give any room for the veteran Cash to make a comeback of any sorts. The agile Enqvist maintained his tempo and won the match 6-3.
In the mixed doubles, the second match of the tie, Williams and Lopez overwhelmed Radwanska and Marcos Baghdatis 6-3 after the Bangalore pair took an early 3-2 lead breaking the rival combo in the fifth game.
Lopez served well and Williams capitalised on her famous baseline smashes and volleys. Both Baghdatis and Radwanska proved no match to the power game by Williams and delectable serves of Lopez.
The final result is decided on the basis of aggregate score of the five-match tie. The five matches are in the category of Legends (singles), Mixed Doubles, Women's Singles, Men's Doubles and Men's Singles.
