It’s beginning to be now-or-never time for the quiet killer known around the WTA as The Ninja. Agnieszka Radwanska, who will be 26 in March, reached a Wimbledon final in 2012, reached the semis there in 2013 and matched that result at the Australian Open in 2014. But is that as far as this consummate finesse player believes she can go? Aga won just one title in 2014, in Montreal, failed to reach the quarters at the last three majors and, worst of all, by early October had been surpassed in the rankings for the first time by two younger players, Simona Halep and Genie Bouchard.
Is there anything the Pole, who has a lollipop second serve and a terminal lack of pace, can do? In some ways, she has already done more with her career during this power era than most would have expected. If a big hitter is on her game, Radwanska will always be at a severe disadvantage. Perhaps the best we can hope for is that she stays where she is, in the Top 10, giving us her uniquely artistic take on tennis. Her best shots are so brilliant and unlikely, all we can do is laugh. Grand Slam champion or not, tennis can always use a player like that.