Olga Govortsova had made the second round of the past two Australian Opens, her equal best performance at this major. Her next opponent, 5th seed Agnieszka Radwanska would be sure to prevent the tall Belarus player, ranked 98 in the world, from setting a new personal milestone.
Aga was still reeling from the fact that she needed three sets to squeeze past her first round victim, and she had no plans for a repeat performance.
True to her own wishes, the 5th seed opened up proceedings by opening up Govortsova with a consistency that struck her opponent hard and annoyed her into basic error.
2-0 became 4-0 and ultimately 6-0 and the set. A neat pattern, and that is way Aga approaches things. Her rival today was not 100% on top of things. Olga was hitting too hard too soon and could not find the right angles to test Aga to any level.
Radwanska, with her all court game, was selecting too many different places to put the tennis ball than Olga's mind had the capacity to process in time to deliver a decent reply.
Set two began differently - Olga put a more effective plan in place and executed some excellent backhands to assist in the breaking of Aga's opening serve. Then, confirming that she was serious, Olga smashed her way to 2-0, taking Aga miles out of her comfort zone with the Belarusian backhand now the danger shot of the match.
Always thinking about her tennis Aga changed the pace to match what Olga had brought to the table and between the two of them, what they now offered was very appetising.
The games went to serve until the sixth, which did also, but only after Govortsova survived several break points by actually out rallying Radwanska. Not so lucky was Olga in the eight game however when she failed to withstand the Polish onslaught highlighted by a stunning forehand. 4-4.
Olga came back well, holding her next serve strongly, but at 5-6, she could not handle the pressure meted out by Aga and the final service break of the match finished the match with Radwanska the victor 6-0 7-5
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