Radwanska Pulls Asian Double

It turned out to be quite a weekend for headliners, but Agnieszka Radwanska takes the cake due to playing in a top-level tournament and the fact that she just won two "Tier I" events in a row.  The Pole came seemingly from nowhere to win both Tokyo and Beijing, defeating Andrea Petkovic in the Beijing final today 7-5 0-6 6-4 overcoming a second bagel.  She is definitely the hottest player on tour right as picks up her 3rd title in 3 months and her 7th career title with her win in Beijing.  She knocked world no. 1 Wozniacki in the quarterfinals.  She has the inside track to being the 8th qualifier for the year end championships and there really is no reason she can't win that event, and then you might as well through her name in the mix for Australia, where she made the quarters this year, and gave Clijsters all she wanted, after just coming back from injury.  Bartoli would have to win two events in the next 2 weeks and Radwanska would lose before the quarters in Moscow for Radwanska not to make it to Istanbul.  If Bartoli fails to win Osaka, I would advise the Pole to pull out of Moscow, but we'll see how things play out.

Tomas Berdych won his first title in over 2 years, dating back to '09 Munich, defeating Marin Cilic 3-6 6-4 6-1 in the final of the men's Beijing tournament -- ATP 500.  It is the Czech's 6th career title and gives him the inside track for the 8th spot in London, though there is still a month plus of tennis to play including 2 Masters tournaments.

And in Tokyo -- ATP 500, we got the Nadal/Murray match we wanted and the Scot continued his winning streak, knocking off the Spaniard 3-6 6-2 6-0 while winning 11 of the last 12 games.  For Murray it is 20th career title and 4th of this year.  He'll be the favorite going to Shanghai, where he is the defending champion.  With Federer not present, if Murray wins again he will take the #3 ranking from the 16-time slam champion.  That could add to the drama down the stretch of the season as the Swiss has lots of points to defend, but I'm not sure it matters that much to Federer especially 3 and 4 are equal for draw purposes.

Speaking of Shanghai, Murray is the defending champion, having whipped Federer in last year's final.  Juan Monaco and Novak Djokovic were the losing semifinalists (Djokovic's loss to Federer would be the first of 3 Federer wins over Djokovic in the fall).  Melzer, Tsonga, Soderling, and Garcia-Lopez were the other quarterfinalists.