Tennis: Radwanska battles through pain to down Puig and enter Aussie Open fourth round

Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland gets medical treatment during her third round match against Monica Puig. PHOTO: EPA

MELBOURNE (AFP) - Fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska battled through the pain barrier on Friday to ease past Monica Puig and into the Australian Open fourth round as she continued her relentless march towards the second week.

The in-form Pole, who won the Shenzhen Open this month, hit back from an early break to reel off nine games in a row and beat the 22-year-old Puerto Rican 6-4, 6-0 in 76 minutes on Margaret Court Arena.

She will now play Germany's Anna-Lena Friedsam who upset 13th-seeded Roberta Vinci, the Italian who ended Serena Williams' calendar-year Grand Slam bid on her way to the US Open final in September.

Radwanska pulled out of the lead-up Sydney International to rest a troubled left leg, but it is clearly still giving her problems.

She needed treatment on her foot at the end of the first set and had the trainer out several times to massage her calf, although she downplayed the issue afterwards.

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